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The book, which is based on a true story, follows the life of Lily Bancroft, a spiritualist medium and healer together with her three husbands, set against the backdrop of two world wars.

“Lily was a woman ahead of her time. She desperately wanted to study medicine and heal the sick, but was born in the Victorian era to an autocratic father who had other plans for her future,” Mrs Behan said.  

“When she discovered she was a psychic healer and medium, she married, thinking this would give her the freedom to follow her dream.

“I really wanted to write her story as she was such an unusual woman. The main dates and facts are true as it is based on my Grandmother’s life, but it is a work of fiction.”

Mrs Behan said she uncovered many interesting facts from her research.

“One in particular was that in WWI Red London buses were used to house carrier pigeons,” she said.

“They brought messages from the front and when they got back to their bus they landed on a wire which rang a bell to indicate a message had come.

“During WWII, Lily’s second husband, John, was an aircraft inspector in Bristol. My father told me the air raid siren had gone off and John had gone back into the factory to find the office boy who was missing when the warden did the roll call.

“The shelters received a direct hit and most of the people were killed. The office boy, Roy, survived. I found his account of this during my research, which was a strange feeling.”

Books are available for $25 each from Gerringong Newsagency, Fern Street, Gerringong and Jennie’s Book Nook, Centrepoint Arcade, Kiama.