Showing results by narrator "Clare Wille" in All Categories

First appearing in 1782, Dangerous Liaisons is one of the most scandalous and controversial novels in European literature. The plot unfolds through a series of letters as the two main protagonists, the Vicomte de Valmont and the Marquise de Merteuil, attempt to bring about the seduction of a young woman. The epistolary nature of the novel gives a multi-faceted perspective of the action, which places the book firmly in the tradition of libertine literature.

In the industrial heart of Victorian England–now Stoke-on-Trent–lonely Anna Tellwright is dominated by her miserly, bullying father and the strict Methodist community of Bursley. Inheriting a fortune does not free her from subjugation: every direction has an obstacle and Anna must choose between the ambitious Henry Mynors (duty) and the sensitive Willie Price (desire). Will she break free from society’s expectations or succumb to the life laid out for her? Bennett’s depiction of the Potteries brings to life a world of social pressures, moral dilemmas, and the struggle for personal freedom.

In the lush Shropshire countryside, free-spirited Hazel Woodus is torn between two men: the gentle parson Edward Marston and the passionate, fox-hunting squire Jack Reddin. Her wild side, deep connection to nature, and love of animals–especially Foxy, her pet fox–make for clear internal conflict: she wants to find contentment in her chaste marriage to Edward, but the allure of Reddin is inescapable....

Posie Parker always dreamt of becoming a Private Detective. So with nothing to lose, and the tiniest scrap of an inheritance and her haughty cat, Mr Minks, in tow, she sets up her own Detective Agency in Bloomsbury. But clients are hard to come by, and all seems in vain, until Posie receives an urgent call from her childhood friend, Lord Rufus Cardigeon, who is up to his neck in bother. He’s been robbed of a family heirloom—the priceless Maharajah diamond—by his showgirl fiancée, Lucky Lucy Gibson.

Invited by society beauty Lady Violet Boynton-Dale to her ancestral home, Boynton Hall, to investigate dangerous threats which are being made against her brother, the dashing Explorer Alaric Boynton-Dale, Posie leaves London for the sun-dappled beauty of the Cotswolds. She finds that Boynton Hall is a place of opulent grandeur, but also of dark secrets, not least that Alaric is a man with jilted lovers and jealous husbands left trailing in his wake.

Gone Astray is a tense psychological thriller from debut novelist Michelle Davies. When Lesley Kinnock buys a lottery ticket on a whim, it changes her life more than she could have imagined.... Lesley and her husband, Mack, are the sudden winners of a £15 million EuroMillions jackpot. They move with their 15-year-old daughter, Rosie, to an exclusive gated estate in Buckinghamshire, leaving behind their ordinary lives - and friends - as they are catapulted into wealth beyond their wildest dreams.

This charming piece of social observation throws a gentle spotlight on life in a small village in northern England of the 1850s. The middle-aged ladies, existing in rather impoverished circumstances, nevertheless maintain the rules of politeness which they feel they should live by.