Sylvia’s books have glowing endorsements from Oxford &Harvard professors, from journalist Yasmin Alibhai Brown and the editor of the Madras Courier. The poet, Dr Jenny Lewis, says of Brushstrokes in Time ‘It has to be among my top ten historical novels, certainly of this century. Utterly mesmerising and unforgettable.’ A theme of all her books fiction and non-fiction is uncovering lost history and telling untold stories
When Sylvia heard about the Stars artists (Beijing 1979) from a founder, Qu Leilei, she wondered why these courageous artists who marched to Tiananmen Square under a banner saying ‘In Art we want Freedom and in Politics we want Democracy’ were not well known. As NO-ONE had written about the Stars Art Movement in depth, (and no one in China could) she decided to do it. To her knowledge, Brushstrokes in Time is the ONLY book on the Stars. She made it a NOVEL so readers walk in their shoes and empathise with them.
