The reading of a suicide note has devastating consequences for the Clifton family. Giles must decide if he should withdraw from politics and try to rescue Karin, the woman he loves, from behind the Iron Curtain. Lady Virginia is facing bankruptcy until she is introduced to the hapless Cyrus T. Grant III from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, who's in England to see his horse run at Royal Ascot. Sebastian Clifton is now the Chief Executive of Farthings Bank;...

When Harry arrives in New York, his publisher Harold Guinzberg tells him he has been elected as the next president of English PEN, which will give him the opportunity to launch a campaign for the release of a fellow author, Anatoly Babakov, who is languishing in a Russian Gulag in Siberia. His crime: writing a book Uncle Joe, which gives an insight into what it was like to work for Josef Stalin. So determined is he to see Babakov released, Harry puts...

Growing up as the governess's daughter in the shadow of the Harding family's eccentric charm, Mary Fox can never hope to share their unshakable social confidence. Beautiful Godfrey, outrageous Nettie, and the twins, Jonathan and William, are born into a world of privilege where money, status, pleasure and love seem their birthright. Although aware of the disparity between them, Mary clings to the illusion of family that sharing a life with them

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"This Was a Man opens with a shot being fired, but who pulled the trigger, and who lives and who dies? In Whitehall, Giles Barrington discovers the truth about his wife Karin from the Cabinet Secretary. Is she a spy or a pawn in a larger game? Harry Clifton sets out to write his magnum opus, while his wife Emma completes her ten years as Chairman of the Bristol Royal Infirmary, and receives an unexpected call from Margaret Thatcher offering her a...

"From the popular author of Kane and Abel and A Prisoner of Birth comes the story of one family across generations, across oceans, from heartbreak to triumph. The epic tale of Harry Clifton's life begins in 1920, with the words, "I was told that my father was killed in the war." A dock worker in Bristol, Harry never knew his father, but he learns about life on the docks from his uncle who expects Harry to join him at the shipyard once he's left school....

Emma Ruskin, disillusioned with life and love, takes a position as governess to ten-year-old Poppy Ackroyd at a large country home. Despite the Ackroyd family's contempt for her, she soon begins to develop a rapport with Gavin, their effortlessly superior eldest son. Then disaster strikes when Emma and Poppy are snatched and imprisoned by kidnappers. Emma knows they'll be killed if the ransom money isn't forthcoming, unless Gavin can get to them first....

Pampered Margaret Macy flees London in disguise to escape pressure to marry a dishonorable man. With no money and nowhere else to go, she takes a position as a housemaid in the home of a suitor she once rejected in hopes of winning his dashing brother. Praying no one will recognize her, Margaret fumbles through the first real work of her life. But can she remain hidden even when prying eyes visit Fairbourne Hall?

"In a novel perfect for fans of Hazel Gaynor's A Memory of Violets and upstairs-downstairs stories, Annabel Abbs, the award-winning author of The Joyce Girl, returns with the brilliant real-life story of Eliza Acton and her assistant as they revolutionized British cooking and cookbooks around the world. Before Mrs. Beeton and well before Julia Child, there was Eliza Acton, who changed the course of cookery writing forever. England, 1835. London is...

"Charles Dickens's last completed novel, "Our Mutual Friend" is the story of "Noddy" Boffin, a common clerk who becomes "the Golden Dustman" after he inherits a dust-heap where the aristocracy throw their refuge. A brutal satire and social analysis, "Our Mutual Friend" is a masterpiece that explores the allure and curse of money while demonstrating all the themes the author is famous for. Charles John Huffam Dickens (1812-1870) was an English writer...

Steeped in eroticism, this novel captures the dilemma of lovers who look for complete fulfillment in one another and reflects the post-World War I era's despair at an increasingly mechanized, inhumane society.