Packed with colour, history, atmosphere and plenty of twists and turns, this is a lush, escapist read Sunday Express Before the Rains is a sizzling, eye-opening page-turner and confirms Jefferies's reputation as both a master storyteller and an acute observer of 20th century colonial history. Lancashire Post Beautifully written and heart-rending -- Katie Fforde on 'The Tea Planter's Wife' Dinah Jefferies has a remarkable gift for conjuring up another time and place with lush descriptions, full of power and intensity -- Kate Furnivall on 'The Silk Merchant's Daughter' My ideal read - I couldn't put it down -- Santa Montefiore on 'The Tea Planter's Wife'

Dinah Jefferies was born in Malaysia and moved to England at the age of nine. Her idyllic childhood always held a special place in her imagination, and when she began writing novels in her 60s, she was able to return there - first in her fiction and then on annual research trips for each new novel. Dinah Jefferies is the author of four novels, The Separation, The Tea Planter's Wife - a Number One Sunday Times bestseller, The Silk Merchant's Daughter and Before the Rains. She lives in Gloucestershire.