Bøger af Cynthia Harrod-Eagles

1501: the turbulence of Henry VIII's reign brings passion and pain to the Morlands as they achieve ever greater wealth and prestige.Paul, great-grandsom of Elanor Morland, has inherited the Morland estates, and his own Amyas is set to be his heir. But Paul fathers a beloved illigitimate son, and bitter jealousy causes a destructive rift between the two half-brothers which will lead to death. Paul's niece, Nanette, becomes a maid-in-waiting to Anne Bolyen, and at the court of Henry VIII she becomes embroiled in the King's bitter feud with Rome.Through birth and death, love and hatred, triumph and heartbreak, the Morlands continue proudly to claim their place amongst England's aristocracy.

"e;Brilliant, a definite page turner. They combine real historical events with fascinating fictional characters.The twenty-three volumes of the Morland Dynasty series has been completely repackaged in the most elegant style, using contemporaneous artwork for each period. This wonderful series opens with the back drop of the Wars of the Roses with the marriage between Eleanor Morland and a scion of the influential house of Beaufort. It is a union which establishes the powerful Morland dynasty and in the succeeding volumes of this rich tapestry of English life, we follow their fortunes through war and peace, political upheaval and social revolution, times of pestilence and periods of plenty, and through the vicissitudes which afflict every family - love and passion, envy and betrayal, birth and death, great fortune and miserable penury...The Morland Dynasty is entertainment of the most addictive kind.

When Charlotte Meldon's father dies, she believes herself to be destitute, but a lawyer's letter reveals that she is not only part of the great Morland family, but wealthy and a countess in her own right. She is expected to make a great marriage, and with her vivacious cousin Fanny by her side, she is launched into her first Season. But it is Fanny, the hardened flint, who loses her heart first, while Charlotte catches the eye of Oliver Fleetwood, the most eligible man in London.Then the Season ends in disillusion, and Charlotte rebels against a life of idle amusement. With calm courage she flouts convention and embarks on a new journey which will change her life in very unexpected ways.

1558: Elizabeth I is on the throne, though still challenged by Mary, and her Protestant faith threatens the Catholic Morland family.The reign of Elizabeth I means that the Morlands must seek new spheres of influence to restore their fortunes. John, heir to Morland Place, rides north to wed the daughter of Black Will Percy, the Borders cattle lord, and learns that the way to win her heart is through blood and battle. His gentle sister, Lettice, has also travelled north to marry the ruthless Scottish baron, Lord Robert Hamilton, and in the treacherous court of Mary, Queen of Scots, she has to learn the bleak and bitter lessons of survival...

1916. England is at war, and the Morland family is in the thick of it, with two men already in France and three more soon to go. Tragedy strikes Morland Place when Jessie's husband Ned is reported missing on the Western Front. His father launches a desperate bid to find him, but the family fear the worst. Jessie, in mourning and frustrated by her job as an auxiliary nurse, goes to London to work in a military hospital. There she is reunited with her old friend Oliver, posted to the capital under the RAMC. Also in London is Violet, whose affair with the brilliant artist Octavian Laidislaw is about to erupt in scandal . . .The Measure of Days paints a portrait of a family, and a nation, at war, at a pivotal point in history. With the onset of conscription, no one is left unaffected. Every man must hold himself in readiness; and every woman knows that when she says goodbye, it might be for the last time.

In 1915 the first euphoria of the war has worn off, but the nation is more determined than ever to win. When Ned is sent to the Front ahead of his battalion, Jessie, already involved in various charity works, feels the need to do more and becomes an auxiliary nurse. But life on the wards is harder than she expects. Meanwhile, Helen and Jack settle in a home of their own at last, and Helen takes on a surprise war role of her own. And for Violet in London, a chance meeting with talented young artist threatens to destroy her calm and ordered life. With stalemate on the Eastern Front, everything now hangs on the new September offensive on the Western Front, the Battle of Loos. Both Ned and Bertie will be leading their men over the top, leaving the rest of the family to pray for their safe return.

England in 1912 still bears itself with Edwardian confidence, but strikes, protests and public violence reveal the fault lines as society evolves under the spur of new ideas and technology. Among the many branches of the Morland family, Jessie and Violet, childhood friends, learn to cope with the surprises of marriage and motherhood and their different strata of society. Jack, disappointed in love, loses himself in designing aircraft and training airmen for the newly formed flying corps. And Anne exhausted by the Suffragette struggle, seeks comfort in her friendship with an unconventional young woman. The Titanic tragedy shakes the confidence of a people used to conquering nature with engineering; and all the while, the troubled nations of Europe edge closer to a war no-one wants, but which seems inevitable.

August 1914: the whole country is thrilled by the declaration of war. The British Experditionary Force goes off toe France to defend gallant little Belgium, and thousands more young men rush to volunteer, hoping to see action before the war ends at Christmas. At home everyone competes to be doing the most for the war effort. The Morlands have their share of volunteers, and no-one can say they aren't at the very heart of things. But when Christmas comes the war is far from over, and nine in ten of the men who marched, singing, down the white road to Mons have fallen ...

Edwardian England is a country at the peak of its power; a kingdom of peace, prosperity and progress. As Jessie and Violet enjoy their coming-out in the glittering Season of 1908, their thoughts are of pleasure, dancing and falling in love.For the Morlands things seem set fair: new business ventures expand their influence and wealth; there are weddings, babies in the nursery, careers for the boys now reaching manhood. It is an exciting age, with new technologies - motor cars, telephones, radio, aeroplanes - extending man's control over the natural world.But under the appearance of permanence, a different reality is stirring. Socialism, the suffrage movement, the constitutional crisis, all call forth ever more dissent and anger. Increasingly violent protests and strikes disturb the peace; war with Germany looms ever closer. With the King's death, it begins to seem that the safe Edwardian world was only a dream, from which the wakening will be hard indeed.

In the last years of the nineteenth century the Morlands' fortunes are changing for the better, as Henrietta and Jerome find a true home at Morland Place, and Teddy ploughs his profits into restoring it to its former glory. But the reverses and cruelties of the Boer War and the death of Queen Victoria shake the foundations of a confident nation. The accession of King Edward seems to mark the end of the old, familiar England. Old certainties are being questioned, everything is changing, and the young generation of Morlands faces a new world, full of wonders but full of dangers.

Freed from her miserable marriage by widowhood, Henrietta is at last able to marry her beloved Jerome Compton, but his divorced state means that they have to make their home away from Yorkshire. Settling in London Henrietta finds she takes to urban life with great enjoyment, as does her daughter Lizzie. Soon their home is full of visitors from the best of the city's artistic and scientific circles, and she also makes contact with her cousin Lady Venetia - now a qualified doctor and married at long last to 'Beauty' Haselmere. Venetia's marriage has redeemed her reputation and they find themselves guests at Sandringham and Hatfield. Healthy children are born to both women and it seems as though the comfortable tenor of their lives will never be disturbed again, but clouds are gathering on the horizon and when the deluge comes one of them is forced out of society. Yet it proves more of a homecoming than an exile.Another absorbing piece of English history, deftly told with a rich and colourful background.

George Morland, newly master of Morland Place, embarks on a grand improvement and expansion of the estate. His sister Henrietta, eager to be both good and useful, marries the scholarly rector, Mr Fortescue. And in London, their cousin Lady Venetia Fleetwood, moved by the medical horrors of the Franco-Prussian war, sets out to become a doctor.But the agricultural slump threatens Morland Place with ruin; the medical world rejects Venetia with contempt; and Mr Fortescue proves to be not what he seems. The Morlands have to come to terms with hard reality, and find their happiness in other, unexpected places.

The forthcoming marriage of Venetia, eldest daughter of the Duke of Southport, and 'Beauty' Winchmore is the talk of London society, and a match which has the full support of Venetia's parents. But just weeks before the wedding Venetia cries off - unable to accept that her husband-to-be will forbid her to study medicine. And within weeks of her shameful behaviour her father is dead and she is ostracised from her family, left with a tiny allowance to carry on with the 'cause' and try to qualify as a doctor. Meanwhile at Morland Place George's new wife is whittling away at his fortune during the worst agricultural recession of the century. His sister, Henrietta, apparently safely married off to the Reverend Fortescue, has realised her marriage is a hollow pretence of conjugal bliss and falls heavily in love with a local squire - a passion which seems destined to be unfulfilled. Another wonderful piece of fictionalised history which brings period and place to three-dimensional and colourful life.

Benedict Morland's comfortable life is overset when an old enemy's dying wish leaves him guardian of an orphaned boy. No-one, including his wife Sibella, can understand why Benedict accepts Lennox Mynott into his household and, amid growing hostility at Morland Place, he takes the boy to America, to join his daughter Mary at Twelvetrees Plantation. Here, Benedict, as well as Lennox, fall in love with the Southern way of life, just at the moment when bitter civil war is about to destroy it forever.

Bill Slider and his team face a mystery, when an unidentifiable man appears to have committed suicide but all signs point to murder A boiling-hot August day, and a handsome young man is found dead in his bath, exsanguinated. Suicide is not, strictly speaking, a detective inspector's business, but Bill Slider's colleague takes one look at the body and calls in his boss. 'It don't look right to me, guv, ' is Detective Sergeant Hollis's opinion. 'But I can't quite put my finger on it.' As Bill Slider investigates, he reluctantly has to agree: the man's poky flat is too tidy, for one thing, and smelling of fresh emulsion rather than, say, feet. That's not to mention the method of death: a single slash to the left jugular, when evidence soon proves him to be left-handed. But as Slider and his team try to identify the man - whose personal papers are missing, along with his wallet and keys - it seems that the more they find out about him, the less they really know . .

Zellah Wilding - a straight-A student from a strict churchgoing family - lies dead on Wormwood Scrubs. What was this good girl doing out there, dressed to kill, when she was supposed to be at a sleepover with schoolfriends? Who took her to the Bank Holiday fair? And who followed her afterwards? A secret boyfriend from a run-down estate, a recently-released serial rapist... or could the answer lie closer to home? It seems the more Bill Slider investigates, the less he understands this very secret girl... "Readers will find themselves gripped from the first page to the last by the complex characters, keep-'em-guessing plot, surprising twists, and - most of all - by the multifaceted Slider." - Booklist on Fell Purpose "A sly wit that leavens this richly detailed mystery is a bonus" - Publishers Weekly on Blood Never Dies "Only a die-hard misanthrope would disdain a chance to spend time with Slider" - Kirkus Starred Review for Body Line

The eagerly-awaited return to the acclaimed Morland Dynasty series, and the 100th novel by Cynthia Harrod-EaglesEngland, 1936The reign of Edward VIII has begun, but danger for the monarchy already looms on the horizon. At home in Morland Place, Polly Morland feels alone and abandoned, with her brother summoned to France by his old employer. James soon finds himself travelling to Russia, whereas Polly will voyage on the Queen Mary with New York - and a long-lost love - her destination. Soon the family are scattered to the four winds, from Hollywood to war-torn Spain. Working for the Air Ministry on new fighter planes, Jack fears that his children are not taking the increasingly tense situation in Europe seriously enough. The nation is divided over which is the greater thread: Communist Russia, or Fascist Germany. As the storms of war gather, they will threaten to overwhelm the Morlands and destroy all that they have worked for...The BRAND-NEW novel in the acclaimed Morland Dynasty historical fiction series with over a quarter of a million copies sold. The perfect read for fans of Downton Abbey, Lucinda Riley and The Crown.

The third novel in the Ashmore Castle series, perfect for fans of DOWNTON ABBEY, from the author of the hugely successful MORLAND DYNASTY novelsBehind the doors of the magnificent Ashmore Castle, secrets are waiting to be uncovered . . .England, 1903.Giles, the Earl of Stainton, has fled from his stifling duties to resume his research in Egypt, leaving behind his wife Kitty, and his infant son. Kitty, still reeling from Giles' sudden departure, struggles to keep spirits high in the castle and establish herself as the true mistress of the house, an impossible task given how many secrets the inhabitants are hiding from her...The Earl's younger sisters, Rachel and Alice, are both pursuing forbidden romances, and his brother Richard begins a new business venture, spurred on by his clandestine lover. And below stairs, a shocking crime sends distrust rippling through the staff, more so when one of their own is accused.Kitty must draw on her strength to keep the castle from crumbling around her, but with her marriage to Giles left uncertain, and a surprise of her own to conceal, can she ever take her rightful place as true head of her household?The third novel in the Ashmore Castle historical family drama series, filled with heartbreak, romance and intriguing secrets waiting to be uncovered. The perfect read for fans of Downton Abbey, Bridgerton and rich period dramas.

The grass is always greener . . . - Polly wonders how she managed to capture husband Seth, and frets over her inability to give him the family he wants. A few doors away, her friend Ginnie is bored. Her only excitement is fantasizing over the latest fashions. Each believes they'd be better in the others shoes. But when a rich American moves in down the street, suddenly life isn't so boring anymore . . .

For a policeman, there are some questions that have to be asked even if you don't want to know the answers . . . A middle-aged man jumps under a tube train at Shepherd's Bush station, and a teenage girl is killed in a hit-and-run, in a country lane puzzlingly far from her home on the White City Estate: two unrelated incidents which occupy DCI Bill Slider and his team during a slack period. At least it's a change of speed after the grind of domestics, burglaries and Community Liaison. But links to a cold case - another dead teenager, pulled out of the River Thames - create doubts as to whether they are indeed unrelated. And slowly a trail of corruption and betrayal is uncovered, leading Slider and his firm ever deeper into a morass of horror.

David Rogers was a doctor, handsome, charming and rich. He lived the lifestyle of a consultant - expensive clothes, top restaurants, exclusive clubs - until someone killed him in the hallway of his lovely million-plus house. Was he killed for passion, professional jealousy, or plain old money? Bill Slider and his firm are thrown into the mystery, but they soon discover that nothing is as it seems, for though David's girlfriends are plenty, none of them can tell Slider anything about where he worked or exactly what it was he did... "The multi-talented Harrod-Eagles has the modern police procedural down pat and perfectly captures the quirks and foibles of the British copper. With its original plot twists, charismatic cast, and the intriguingly multifaceted Slider, this one is a top pick for all collections." - Emily Melton, Booklist "Only a die-hard misanthrope would disdain a chance to spend time with Slider." - Kirkus Starred Review

Commuting, house-hunting, in-law trouble: it is the ordinary things that occupy most of us, most of the time. But in these wry, unsettling and unexpected tales, real life is not always what it seems. A commuter dies of rage during rush-hour, and finds that's not the end of the story. A meek middle-aged woman exacts an appalling revenge during afternoon tea. Fairies at the bottom of the garden reveal themselves to be far from enchanting. Two old ladies carry on a bitter vendetta that started in the Blitz and lasts beyond the grave. And the Tree of Knowledge self-seeds in a suburban garden, with devastating consequences. From the prizewinning author of more than 80 historical, romance and detective novels, this unique collection of 14 short stories turns the ordinary into the extraordinary... and back again. "Master story-teller" Daily Telegraph "Assured and elegant" The Times "The master of her craft" Toronto Star

A poignant and emotional love story In the summer of 1954, George West met young Josella Grace, the daughter of a retired colonel, and fell passionately in love with the reserved but beautiful girl a love that seemed destined never to be fulfilled. Ten years later Josella wanders through life, glorying in her freedom, pitying all those tied down by ordinary cares. But she bears a secret so terrible only George can release her from it if she will let him.

Melanie Hunter had a fine career as a palaeontologist. She was polite, friendly and well liked. So when she goes missing, it is completely out of character. The men in her life come under suspicion: her boyfriend, her step-father, her neighbour with the shady past. And there is plenty to suspect: lies, half-truths, deceptions ... It seems that when you pull one thread, the whole fabric of family life can come apart. Melanie had tried to be good, to make something of herself, and had succeeded pretty much. But something was wrong somewhere. Melanie had a secret, a pain she tried to hide from the world. Was it the secret that killed her? She was ever the sympathetic listener - but who was listening to her? As Bill Slider is drawn into her shadowy world, he must find the answer to two questions: who loved Melanie? And who loved her too much? "If you are unlucky enough to be murdered, pray that DI Slider is handed your case." Kirkus Reviews "Readers will find themselves gripped from first page to last." Booklist "Only a die-hard misanthrope would disdain a chance to spend time with Slider." Kirkus Reviews

The world of professional show-jumping is glamorous, intense and gruelling - and not without danger. But now someone is trying to make it more dangerous still. Polly Morgan and Dan Roberts are at the heart of a group of horsemasters, who all have their own personal problems to solve. Polly is hesitating over a proposal, unsure whether marriage will jeopardise her career. Howard Meak's marriage is on the rocks due to his long-standing love for Chris Campbell. And Tom Emmerson's desperate financial straits are driving him to drink. But now they find themselves under attack by an unknown practical joker, whose tricks are growing increasingly nasty. Can Polly and Dan discover who the prankster is before someone gets seriously hurt? What is the secret past of the big chestnut horse? And what has the mysterious newcomer, Anne Neville, to do with it all? With the biggest tournament of the year, in the United States, coming up, there's no time to lose...

A poignant and emotional love story set in the 1950s and 1960s In the summer of 1954, young George West, qualified as an architect but completing his National Service, meets 17-year-old Josella Grace, daughter of a retired colonel. He falls passionately in love with this reserved but beautiful girl - a love that seems destined never to be fulfilled. Their story, and its dark secrets, alternates between George's tale of first love in 1954 and Josella's bitter-sweet perspective a decade later in 1964. Their unique voices chart the anguish, tragedy and despair, as their lives are led apart... "Vivid characters, an enthralling plot, and realistic ambience...dramatic, taut and gripping." Emily Melton, Booklist

One lousy Monday, Jenna loses her gorgeous job, her even more gorgeous boyfriend, and her home. In an attempt to put aside her personal woes, Jenna goes to catalogue books for an elderly cousin, Kitty Everest, at her country mansion. Horrified to discover that Kitty may be forced to sell Holtby House, Jenna throws herself into a scheme to save it. But when an attempt is made on her life, Jenna finds herself in a race to save Holtby, Kitty - and herself.

Who would kill a charming antiques expert Rowland Egerton, the darling of daytime TV? Bill Slider and his team are on the case . . . 'It's quiet out there, ' says DS Atherton, at Bill Slider's office window. 'Too quiet.' Right on cue, the phone rings. 'Now look what you've done, ' says Slider. It's a homicide. The post-Christmas lull is officially over. The deceased is antiques expert Rowland Egerton, the darling of daytime TV, stabbed to death in his luxurious West London home. The press are going to be all over this one like a nasty rash: the pressure's on Slider for a result, and soon. Egerton's partner, the bulky, granite-faced John Lavender, found the body; did he also do the deed? Or was it a burglary gone wrong? A missing Fabergé box and Impressionist painting point that way. But as Slider and his team investigate, none of the facts seem to fit. And it soon becomes clear that the much-loved, charming Mr Egerton wasn't as universally loved, or perhaps as charming, as Slider was first led to believe . . .