An action-packed adventurous tale with an added magical touch of the mystical dancing across the pages. A treat of three books in one, we follow brave and capable Lizzy from the age of 14 as she struggles to break a family curse. Short punchy chapters and beautiful descriptive detailing make this extremely readable. Travelling from Yorkshire to London, India and Spain, each location is vividly brought to life, along with the difficulties Lizzy faces. Occasionally there are sudden or unexplained additions or changes which creates a further edge to proceedings. Murder, intrigue, and excitement abound, however, there are reminders of the intolerance and discrimination that can be found on the different branches of life. As you follow the moon in each of its phases through to the end, Lizzy grows in confidence and determination, ensuring a dramatic but fitting end to the adventures of the Moonstone. ~ Liz Robinson
June 2015 eBook of the Month.
"Mystic crystal revelation, and the mind's true liberation..."
A musical / literary collaboration between Philippe Cohen Solal (Gotan Project), Horace Andy (Massive Attack) and author Diana de Gunzburg – a cover version of "The Age of Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In". In her book The Moonstone Legacy Trilogy (written with Tony Wild), the track is played by Phil Solaris, über cool DJ, at a new age, total solar eclipse event on a beach in Almeria, Spain, that coincides with the falling to earth of a meteoric diamond. This chapter of the book has now manifested into a track featuring Horace Andy singing, Diana reading (under her Muslim name, Leila), and Philippe producing (under the name Phil Solaris).
December 2015 Update ...
A You Tube mash-up video to go with the track has been created.
And excitingly the project has just been selected by Coalition Climat 21 (a worldwide climate protest movement) as their anthem for the COP 21 talks and shared with the 130+ affiliated groups worldwide. Quite a journey.
“Hugely enjoyable”, “most entertaining and enlightening”, “educational”, and “excellent”. These are some of the words used by many reviewers (who include William Dalrymple and Michael Morpurgo) to describe The Moonstone Legacy Trilogy. And those are just the words beginning with ‘e’.
The trilogy defies categorisation – part East/West epic, part historical fiction, part family saga, part mystery adventure, part spiritual exploration and part science fiction, this fascinating multi-faceted book appeals to readers of all ages, colours and creeds, and has them “gripped to the pages” as they follow Lizzy Abercrombie, the young heroine, through her exciting adventures towards the trilogy’s breathtakingly cosmic conclusion.
Themes of gender equality and religious tolerance seamlessly meld with explorations of beliefs, multiculturalism and the nature of the universe as this sizzling page-turner literally plays out under the waxing and waning of the moon – uniquely, every one of its hundred and seventy chapters shows the exact phase of the moon during which events take place.
“‘Why is the universe so suited to life?’ In successfully dramatising this compelling question, The Moonstone Legacy takes the reader on a thrilling voyage of mind and imagination, yet at the same time keeps us firmly rooting for our brave, funny and funky heroine through all her terrifying ordeals.” Anja C Andersen, Astronomer and Professor of Dark Cosmology, University of Copenhagen
“A compulsive and entertaining read with gripping modulations every few bars. Hugely enjoyable.” Michael Berkeley, presenter of BBC Radio 3’s “Private Passions”
“The Moonstone Legacy is the most entertaining and enlightening book I’ve read in years! It speaks to all of us on a deep and resounding level, reawakening the childlike wonder and unfettered courage we should all live our lives by. If you read nothing else this year, the transformational power of The Moonstone Legacy is a must!” Susyn Blair-Hunt, MsD (Doctor of Metaphysics), Psychic, Astrologer, Metaphysical Consultant
Author
About Diana De Gunzburg, Tony Wild
Diana, by Tony I first met Diana at a party in her Yorkshire mother's house: I thought she was lovely, a great dancer – and a total fantasist. She told me tall stories about her childhood in northern Pakistan, about her great-grandfather having been hanged by the British, about her aristocratic white Russian grandmother who had escaped back to Russia after the Revolution, about her grandfather being murdered in his bed, about the huge cave in her father's mountain with an ancient Buddhist temple inside and about daily life in the Frontier with its cast of hermaphrodite servants being swung from ceiling fans, deaf and dumb butlers, drivers recently gaoled with their camels, and the princely palace she played in.
Looking as she did – more, like a beautiful Swede than my image of a subcontinental – made it all the easier to dismiss Diana's stories as an update of The Arabian Nights.
A few months later I accompanied her Pashtun father from the UK overland to Pakistan. There I found that everything that Diana had told me was in fact true: there actually was a White Russian grandmother, a Buddhist cave, an uncle who was a Nawab with not just one, but several palaces, and even a deaf and dumb butler.
After many creative adventures and travels together over the years we decided to write The Moonstone Legacy Trilogy. Like Diana's childhood tales, it turned out to be more true to life than you might at first think...
Tony, by Diana I first met Tony at my older sister's 21st. He had a lot more hair then. He sweetly defended me against my sister's condescending boyfriend, which was a good start! Since we have shared so many creative journeys physical and metaphysical, musical and visual. The Moonstone LegacyTrilogy is the culmination of pretty much everything we've done together philosophically, spiritually, physically and virtually – such fun! We had to do it, it was written!
Diana de Gunzburg (D) & Tony Wild (T) talk about the question they are asked most frequently – how do you work together? – and how they might respond...
D It's true that we feed of each other's energy in a very good way and I know that neither of us could have written this trilogy without the other - it's impossible, not just because of writing together, but the whole thing.
T Yeah.
D It works on a more metaphysical level - we could talk about metaphysics, it's my new buzzword, I could talk about that...
T Well go on, talk about that.
D Well then it's impossible to have come up with this – well no that's a bit... So we certainly couldn't have written this book solo, either of us, not just because we would be incapable of writing the story, either of us, because neither of us would be, but on a metaphysical level the interchange of energy produced ideas and developed ideas in motion that couldn't have developed without that exchange (pause) that wouldn't have developed without that exchange.
T Yeah.
D And that's a good thing to say as it's very much what we're talking about in Lizzy's (authors' shorthand for The Moonstone Legacy Trilogy ) too.
T Exactly.
D And I get my favourite word of the moment – metaphysical – out there. So that's what I'd say. Whaddya say?
T Well yes, I agree but I also think it's um...it's a matter of personalities as well...
D Also I think because it's a male female writing partnership. T Yeah.
D That's special, an essential part of it.
T I said to Thoby (mutual friend) who was asking about how we work together ...I said that you make sure that everything is live and direct and in the present which is not my strength at all...
D Yeah.
T And so you sort of drag it back into the present. I attend to the nuts and bolts, stuff like that, and make sure it's all tickety-boo and running smoothly...
D Yeah, yeah
T Then you come and mess it up and make it live as a result.
