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Assimilation
by Sophie BuchaillardA multi-generational historical drama, full of mystery and deeply-wrought circumstancesOne family's story set against the backdrop of some of the biggest political and humanitarian events of the century. A tale of unravelling family secrets, belonging, betrayal and inherited trauma. A book that transports you in time and place through one family's history and struggle with its colonial roots.Marianne: a mother with a colourful past, keeping a terrible secret, tries her best to conform to French middle-class expectations. Charlotte: young and fiercely independent, desperately needs to escape dreadful trauma and a country she does not feel she belongs to. She leaves France and arrives in Wales, hoping to find peace and somewhere to rebuild her life.This book explores the challenges of identity, belonging, and womanhood, and the stories we tell in order to fit in.
Sound, Space and Civility in the British World, 1700-1850 (British Literature in Context in the Long Eighteenth Century)
by Bruce Buchan Peter Denney Karen CrawleyIn this collection, the essays examine the critical role that judgments about noise and sound played in framing the meaning of civility in British discourse and literature during the long eighteenth century. The volume restores the sonic dimension to conversations about civil conduct by exploring how censured behaviours and recommended practices resonated beyond the written word. As the contributors show, understanding changing perceptions and valuations of noise and sound allows us to chart how civility was understood in the context of significant political, social and cultural change, including the development of urban life, the extension of empire and the consolidation of legal procedure. Divided into three parts, Sound, Space and Civility in the British World demonstrates how both noise and sound could be recognized by eighteenth-century Britons as expressions of civility. The essays also explore the audible implications of uncivil conduct to complicate our understanding of the sonic range of politeness. The uses of sound and noise to interrogate British colonial anxieties about the distinction between civility and incivility are also investigated. Taken together, the essays identify the emergence of civility as a development that radically altered sonic attitudes and experiences, producing new notions of what counted as desirable or undesirable sound.
Against Her Nature: 'A modern day Vanity Fair' Mail on Sunday
by Elizabeth BuchanLove, money and children... Life is a risk, however much we try to protect ourselves...Unlike the Frants living their quiet ordered lives in the village of Appleford, Tess and Becky are of the generation that believes it can have everything. Highflyers in the high-octane world of London's high-finance, they move through the opportunists, the short-termists, the sharks, the bullies and the very, very rich to face many choices, not least the one presented by biology: children.As the different generations balance the challenges life throws at them, a tender and unexpected love story emerges alongside a journey to maturity in this bold and beautiful novel.'A modern day Vanity Fair ... brilliantly done' - Mail on Sunday
Consider the Lily
by Elizabeth BuchanWhen a choice must be made between love and duty, solace comes in unexpected forms... Summer, 1929. The Hinton Dysart estate is dying from lack of money, and Kit Dysart, the heir, sees no way out. Then, at his sister's wedding, he meets the vibrant Daisy Chudleigh and her cousin, the heiress Matty Verrall. In love with Daisy but troubled by his family's decline, Kit chooses to marry Matty, though neither Kit nor Daisy is able to forget the other. When Matty, growing increasingly unhappy in her troubled, empty marriage, decides to re-create the estate's garden, she discovers solace and a gift of which she never dreamt. A haunting, passionate story played out between three people, Consider the Lily is also a poignant and beautiful novel of England between the wars that propels the reader into its own rich and nostalgic world.
Daughters
by Elizabeth BuchanIt is a truth universally acknowledged that all mothers want to see their daughters happily settled.But for Lara, mother to Maudie and stepmother to Jasmine and Eve, realizing this ambition has not been easy. With an ex-husband embarking on a new marriage, and the surprising and late blooming developments in her own love life to contend with, Lara has enough to worry about, especially with Eve's upcoming wedding. And when she begins to fear that Eve is marrying a man who will only make her unhappy, and Maudie reveals something that shocks the entire family, Lara faces the ultimate dilemma. Does she step in and risk the wrath of her daughters? Or does she stand by and watch them both make what she fears will be the biggest mistakes of their lives?
Daughters of the Storm: A sweeping tale of freedom and betrayal, love and death, set in revolutionary France
by Elizabeth BuchanParis, 1789. As the shadow of the guillotine falls over a nation at war with itself, three very different women find themselves caught up in the storm of revolution... In France under the last Bourbon king, the extravagance grows more outrageous and the unrest of the poor more dangerous. Into this ferment are swept the innocent English Sophie Luttrell, visiting France for the first time; the French aristocrat Héloise de Guinot, who hates the man her parents have arranged for her to marry; and Marie-Victoire, the loyal maid who finds herself immersed in revolutionary politics. They are the daughters of the storm which is sweeping France - and over the world. Three women whose lives will be forever marked by this turning point in history and whose passionate struggle for love, liberty - and for life - will have unexpected consequences.
Elizabeth Buchan five-book collection: Daughters of the Storm, Light of the Moon, Consider the Lily, Perfect Love, Against Her Nature
by Elizabeth BuchanDaughters of the StormParis, 1789. As the shadow of the guillotine falls over a nation at war with itself, three very different women find themselves caught up in the storm of revolution... A sweeping tale of freedom and betrayal, love and death, set in revolutionary France.Light of the MoonIn wartime France, an English SOE and a German Abwehr officer fall in love - with consequences neither could have foreseen. When the battle lines shift, and patriotism gives way to deeper truths, they will both face the gravest of challenges.Consider the LilyA haunting, passionate story played out between three people, Consider the Lily is also a poignant and beautiful novel of England between the wars that propels the reader into its own rich and nostalgic world. Winner of the 1994 Romantic Novelists' Association Novel of the Year Award.Perfect LoveAfter twenty years of marriage, a woman is precipitated into a secret life, and finds herself crossing the boundary between innocence and knowledge, exploring the line between the gluttony and surrender of desire and facing the stark realities that result. A compassionate portrait of a modern marriage.Against Her NatureTwo women move through the opportunists, the short-termists, the sharks, the bullies and the very, very rich to face many choices, not least the one presented by biology: children. Life is a risk, however much we try to protect ourselves. A modern-day take on Vanity Fair.
The Good Wife
by Elizabeth BuchanFrom the author of the bestselling phenomenon REVENGE OF THE MIDDLE-AGED WOMAN comes a compulsive novel about the fascinating tangle of marriage.Fanny Savage was once dutiful, clever, vulnerable and dreamy. Now married to Will, a successful politician with big ambitions, her life is a whirlwind of public engagements and loyalty to the party, a position that requires her to look good and remain silent. But she's no fool. She's well aware that the world outside her home is one that seethes with despair and danger, division and lack of faith, and how fragile happiness can be. She wonders if she's been happy coping with the transition from eager bride to politician's wife? Has she been the Good Wife? Does being good mean being truthful?
I Can't Begin to Tell You
by Elizabeth BuchanA stunning wartime story from the Sunday Times bestselling author of The New Mrs Clifton.When the Nazis invade Denmark, British-born Kay Eberstern is sickened when Bror - her husband of twenty-five years - collaborates with the enemy to save his family home.Lured by British Intelligence into a covert world of resistance, her life in the hands of London's code breakers, Kay's betrayal of her husband is complete as she risks her home and children to protect an SOE agent who won't even tell her his name.As her family - especially her headstrong daughter - is drawn further into danger, Kay is faced with a wrenching moral dilemma. Who will be sacrificed next for the cause? Can she and Bror ever find their way back to one another?I Can't Begin to Tell You is a stunning story of bravery, broken loyalties, lies and how the power of love can bring redemption even to the darkest of places.Praise for I Can't Begin to Tell You:'Impressive . . . Buchan brings the period vividly to life' Sunday Times'Such a good novel, full of incident and history' Daily Express'A gripping story of courage and conscience. Highly recommended' Sunday Mirror'Gripping, fascinating' Daily Mail
Light of the Moon: 'Genuine tension and excitement ... an excellent novel' Philippa Gregory, Sunday Times
by Elizabeth BuchanI thought loving someone was simple. It isn't. Glorious, yes. Painful, yes. Unforgettable, yes. Simple, no. It took me the war to find out... Evelyn St. John has been parachuted into France to link up with the Resistance and to work undercover. Paul von Hoch's brief, as a member of the German Intelligence, is to track down enemy spies. When Evelyn and Paul meet and fall in love, their feelings for one another are fierce, but can never be uncomplicated. And when the battle lines shift, and patriotism gives way to deeper truths, they will both face the gravest of challenges.
The Museum of Broken Promises: ‘…beautiful, elegant.' Marian Keyes
by Elizabeth Buchan'I ADORE cold-war novels and I live for love stories - The Museum of Broken Promises is a perfect combination of both. It's a gem of a book... beautiful, elegant.' Marian Keyes, author of The Break_________Paris, today. The Museum of Broken Promises is a place of wonder and sadness, hope and loss. Every object in the museum has been donated - a cake tin, a wedding veil, a baby's shoe. And each represent a moment of grief or terrible betrayal. The museum is a place where people come to speak to the ghosts of the past and, sometimes, to lay them to rest. Laure, the owner and curator, has also hidden artefacts from her own painful youth amongst the objects on display. Prague, 1985. Recovering from the sudden death of her father, Laure flees to Prague. But life behind the Iron Curtain is a complex thing: drab and grey yet charged with danger. Laure cannot begin to comprehend the dark, political currents that run beneath the surface of this communist city. Until, that is, she meets a young dissident musician. Her love for him will have terrible and unforeseen consequences. It is only years later, having created the museum, that Laure can finally face up to her past and celebrate the passionate love which has directed her life.
The New Mrs Clifton
by Elizabeth BuchanDiscover the gorgeously addictive story of love and betrayal in the compelling bestseller from Elizabeth Buchan'A gripping, immensely satisfying novel with a twist in the tale' Red'Wrapped in the roots of the sycamore was a skeleton; the remains of a woman, between twenty-five and thirty. She had carried a child . . .'At the close of the Second World War, Intelligence Officer Gus Clifton returns to London.On his arm is Krista, the German wife he married secretly in Berlin.For his two sisters, this broken woman is nothing more than the enemy. For Nella, Gus's loyal fiancée, it is a terrible betrayal. As the three women wonder what hold Krista has over decent, honourable Gus, they begin to ask themselves:How far will they have to go to permanently get her out of their home, their future, their England?PRAISE FOR THE NEW MRS CLIFTON'Buchan brilliantly captures the blighted atmosphere of blitzed London' Daily Mail'The tension is palpable and the atmosphere claustrophobic. Buchan vividly conveys the mood of a post-war London brought to its knees. A powerful and emotional read' Sunday Express'I loved this story of post-war adjustment which sets up a mystery on the first page' Cathy Rentzenbrink, Stylist'So so good. Great writing, great story. I could not put it down' Marian Keyes
Perfect Love: 'A terrific, compassionate, compelling novel' Daily Mail
by Elizabeth BuchanLose yourself in the captivating novels by bestselling author Elizabeth Buchan, perfect if you love Harriet Evans or Deborah Moggach. 'Modern marriage and its compromises ... a terrific, compassionate, compelling novel' Daily Mail Over twenty years of marriage to Max, Prue has remained a busy, contented mother and stepmother. Now, Prue's stepdaughter, Violet, has returned with her new husband from New York and, suddenly, Prue is precipitated into a secret life. As she moves between a sleepy village in Hampshire and buzzing London, Prue finds herself crossing the boundary between innocence and knowledge, exploring the line between the gluttony and surrender of desire and facing the stark realities that result. Because while marriage can be a battleground, extraordinary bargains and accommodations are often struck between people who love one another.
Revenge of the Middle-Aged Woman: A Novel (The\two Mrs. Lloyds Ser.)
by Elizabeth BuchanSink into the joyous bestselling novel from Elizabeth Buchan about new beginnings and rediscovering the person you once wereRose Lloyd was the last to suspect that Nathan, her husband of over twenty years, was having an affair, and that he was planning to leave her.But the greatest shock was yet to come: his mistress was Rose's colleague and friend, Minty.Left alone in their once-happy family home, where she and Nathan had brought up their children, Rose started thinking - about the man she'd married, and how well she really knew him. About the carefree yet studious girl she had been before she met him.Twenty years ago she had to make the choice between two very different lives.Could she now recapture what she nearly chose back then, a life where she put herself first?Revenge of a Middle-Aged Woman is the compelling and heart-warming novel from bestselling author Elizabeth Buchan.Praise for Elizabeth Buchan:'Gorgeously well-written - funny, sad, sophisticated' Independent'Beautifully observed, with the insight and humour that one has come to expect from the author' Times'Compelling, compassionate, and aglow with moments of laugh-or-cry humour' Mail on Sunday'Buchan is a cut above the rest' Sunday Mirror
The Second Wife
by Elizabeth BuchanThe Second Wife is the compelling novel from bestselling author Elizabeth Buchan. What happens when the mistress gets her man?Against the odds, that's what happened to Minty. She stole her best friend Rose's husband Nathan and made him her own. But now that she's got what she wanted - marriage, kids, a family home - she's discovering a few things she didn't bargain on: the cold shoulder from Nathan's other family, her husband's middle age and growing distance...and accepting that first wives don't just go away.What's more, age brings one or two other problems for Minty. Problems that will lead her back to the one person she really doesn't want to face...The Second Wife is a compelling and heart-warming novel from bestselling author Elizabeth Buchan.Praise for Elizabeth Buchan:'Gorgeously well-written - funny, sad, sophisticated' Independent'Beautifully observed, with the insight and humour that one has come to expect from the author' Times'Compelling, compassionate, and aglow with moments of laugh-or-cry humour' Mail on Sunday'Buchan is a cut above the rest' Sunday MirrorElizabeth Buchan is the author of twelve novels, including the bestselling and prize-winning Revenge of the Middle-Aged Woman, That Certain Age and The Second Wife, all of which received rave reviews. She lives in London with her husband and children.
Secrets of the Heart
by Elizabeth BuchanAgnes Campion is 30 when she inherits Flagge House from her uncle. Struggling with its upkeep whilst looking after her elderly aunts, juggling her work, and nursing a bruised heart, she doesn't bank on falling for handsome property developer Julian,whose job is everything she despises. But Julian has commitments of his own: Kitty, his long term mistress, won't give him up without a fight: seemingly fragile, she's really as tough as nails. Nor does Agnes imagine that stoical Andrew, whose organic farm is being wrenched away from him by a planning application, will fall for her too. Slowly, surely, a love quartet is developing, but relationships are messy things, and only two people can find happiness at the end of it all ...
Separate Beds: A Novel
by Elizabeth BuchanSeparate Beds is a poignant and compelling novel from Elizabeth Buchan. Annie and Tom's marriage is in mid-life crisis. They seem to have everything - a lovely home, rewarding jobs and three healthy grown-up children - but, beneath the surface, all is not well.Beneath the surface lies a secret guilt which ensures that whilst they live under the same roof, they sleep in separate beds. Then, as recession strikes, Tom comes home one evening and drops a bombshell that threatens to destroy everything they have left. Will he and Annie be able to leave the past behind and weather this storm together? Or will it push them further apart? Annie is about to discover that out of disaster springs the faint rays of hope. As her family rallies together, for the first time in years, her home is filled with people, conversation, tears - and laughter. And, little by little, Annie and Tom start to open up to one another about the terrible, painful truth they have lived with all these years. Soon a new, unexpected future starts to take shape as Annie and Tom are offered a second chance at happiness. But will they take it?Separate Beds is a poignant and compelling novel about the little acts of kindness that can reunite a family and rekindle a marriagePraise for Elizabeth Buchan:'Gorgeously well-written - funny, sad, sophisticated' Independent'Beautifully observed, with the insight and humour that one has come to expect from the author' Times'Compelling, compassionate, and aglow with moments of laugh-or-cry humour' Mail on Sunday'Buchan is a cut above the rest' Sunday MirrorElizabeth Buchan is the author of twelve novels, including the bestselling and prize-winning Revenge of the Middle-Aged Woman, That Certain Age and The Second Wife, all of which received rave reviews. She lives in London with her husband and children.
That Certain Age
by Elizabeth BuchanWith gentle but penetrating wit and insight, Elizabeth Buchan tells the story oftwo women whose lives are separated by fifty years, but linked in a varietyof subtle and surprising ways as they try to make sense of the conflictingdemands of liberation and duty, freedom and necessity, and the labyrinthinepursuit of happiness...
Two Women in Rome: 'Beautifully atmospheric' Adele Parks
by Elizabeth BuchanA beautifully atmospheric new tale from the prize-winning, bestselling novelist Elizabeth Buchan.In the Eternal City, no secret stays hidden forever...Lottie Archer arrives in Rome excited to begin her new job as an archivist. When she discovers a valuable fifteenth-century painting, she is drawn to find out more about the woman who left it behind, Nina Lawrence.Nina seems to have led a rewarding and useful life, restoring Italian gardens to their full glory following the destruction of World War Two. So why did no one attend her funeral in 1978? In exploring Nina's past, Lottie unravels a tragic love story beset by the political turmoil of post-war Italy. And as she edges closer to understanding Nina, she begins to confront the losses in her own life.Praise for Elizabeth Buchan:'It's a gem of a book... Beautiful, elegant.' Marian Keyes'Intricately plotted and beautifully written.' Katie Fforde'An amazing, emotive, heartbreaking but also ultimately uplifting novel. I really loved it.' Laura Barnett
A Chalice Argent: The Story of William Neilson, Volume 2
by James BuchanThe astonishing story of William Neilson continues.New Year's Eve, 1746. A castle in the depths of France. A thunderstorm. A pair of lovers in a hay-loft. A wounded soldier toppling from his horse.So begins the second instalment of the life of William Neilson, Scottish soldier in French service and Jacobite agent against his will. Around his neck, William carries the most precious jewel on the surface of the earth, but it is not his, and he must carry it to the exiled King of England, Scotland and Ireland in Italy. Before that, he wishes to see for a last time the woman he has loved for more than half his life.The scene shifts from the wastes and marshes of the Sologne, to the disorderly houses and prisons of the Most Serene Republic of Venice and the desolate court-in-exile of James Stuart in Rome. Along the way are sword-fights, love stories, intrigues, assassinations, blasphemies, kidnappings, musical performances, and treacheries.
A Street Shaken by Light: The Story of William Neilson, Volume I
by James Buchan'An epic voyage well worth taking ... Exhilarating' Marianka Swain, TelegraphOne of Britain's outstanding historical writers delivers a romantic and picaresque masterpiece that tells the fascinating story of William Neilson. In 1720, the young William Neilson leaves Edinburgh to make his fortune in Europe, first sailing to Rotterdam and then on foot to Paris, where he meets and is immediately employed by the banker John Law. A day later he is in the Bastille, but not before he has encountered a young woman of surpassing beauty to whom Neilson will be devoted for the rest of his life.Imprisoned in the Bastille, he has no possibility of seeing or communicating with his beloved. When at last he recovers his freedom, he is despatched at once to sea, bound for the Indies. He will be shipwrecked, become an equerry on the Île-de-France, anon command a disorderly legion in Persia, become a linguist able to hold his own in diplomatic and mercantile circles, all the while anticipating a summons from the Stuart king in exile in Rome, until he is sent back to France, and thence to Scotland in the service of the Young Pretender.This is brilliant, irresistibly entertaining fiction. A whole world of adventure and romance comes alive in the hands of one of our most ingenious storytellers, one of our finest writers.
The 39 Steps
by John BuchanOne of the most exciting 'chase thrillers' ever published, and a huge influence not only on spy fiction, but on Hollywood as well, The 39 Steps is a book which has captured the imagination of audiences for decades. It was written by acclaimed Scottish author John Buchan, who inspired the writing of other great British novelists, including Graham Greene, Ian Fleming and John le Carré. The 39 Steps remains his most famous work. It is the first of five novels featuring Richard Hannay, an all-action hero with a steely determination and an extraordinary knack for getting himself out of sticky situations. The novel charts the electrifying story of an ordinary man caught up in a sinister international plot.
The Blanket of the Dark
by John BuchanTells the story of young clerk Peter Pentecost, who has a claim to the throne, and a tale of intrigue against King Henry VIII, where 'under the blanket of the dark all men are alike and all are nameless'.
The Complete Richard Hannay (Wordsworth Classics Ser.)
by John BuchanContains: The Thirty-Nine Steps, Greenmantle, Mr Standfast, The Three Hostages and The Island of Sheep
The Dancing Floor: Large Print (Classic Sensation Ser. #3)
by John Buchan'Plakos is a strange place, for the tides of civilisation and progress seem to have left it high and dry. It is a relic of old days, full of wild beliefs and pagan habits.' Young Englishwoman Kore Arabin has inherited a remote Greek island, Plakos, from her unscrupulous father, who was reviled by the locals. The superstitious islanders blame Kore for every minor mishap and natural disaster, and they are about to sacrifice her as a witch in the sacred ground called 'The Dancing Floor'. Sir Edward Leithen and his acquaintance Vernon Milburne must save her. The Dancing Floor is one of Buchan's most intriguing novels – a love story, a dramatic thriller and a tale of the clash between paganism and Christianity. With an introduction by Robert Hardy. This edition is authorised by the John Buchan Society.