Davina Porter
Author
Formats
Description
The wife may be the last to know, but she's the first to come out on top in this tale of marital betrayal and delicious comeuppance by bestselling author Fay Weldon When Worst Fears opens, Alexandra Ludd has been a widow for less than seventy hours, her husband, Ned, former theater critic and stay-at-home father to their young son, Sascha, having died of an apparent heart attack. Alexandra, beautiful, adored darling of the London stage, is too overcome...
Author
Description
When Priscilla Halburton-Smythe brings her London playwright fiance home to Lochdubh, everybody in town is delighted... except for love-smitten Constable Hamish Macbeth. Yet his affairs of the heart will have to wait. Vile, boorish Captain Bartlett, one of the guests at Priscilla's engagement party, has just been found murdered-shot while on a grouse hunt. Now with many titled party guests as the prime suspects, each with a reason for snuffing out...
Author
Formats
Description
The loveable characters from the Poor Relation Hotel return in this sparkling and adventurous Regency romance from M. C. Beaton.
Eliza Budley is a beautiful widow whose husband gambled away his fortune. So when the poor relations need to acquire some valuables to keep the hotel afloat and Eliza draws the short straw, Lady Fortescue reminds the others that Mrs. Budley has no relatives on whom she can call. Gentle Mrs. Budley thinks she has escaped...
Author
Formats
Description
The oddly assorted group met some time ago. All of them were poor relations, the genteel paupers of society, living on little more than their dignity. They banded together and started the Poor Relation hotel, hoping to be bought out by their embarrassed relations. Though as the hotel prospered, they began to enjoy the fruits of their labor. But once more they are in need of funds.
To stoop to crime in their days of poverty was one thing, but to turn...
Author
Formats
Description
Life is not easy for the poor relations of England's upper crust, but fate and clever schemes bring them together. Lady Fortescue and Colonel Sandhurst hatch a plan: What if they were to transform her decrepit Bond Street home into a posh hotel, offering their guests the pleasure of being waited upon by nobility? With the help of other down-and-out aristocrats, they do just that, and London's newest hotel, the Poor Relation, is born.
The establishment...
Author
Formats
Description
Just when everything at the Poor Relation Hotel seems to be running smoothly, Sir Philip brings in another poor relation, Mrs. Budge. When Sir Philip presents his paramour, Lady Fortescue swears great oaths and says the woman is probably related to half the costermongers in London and certainly does not possess one rich relative. Mrs. Budge does nothing but eat all day and refuses to do any work around the hotel. Worst of all, Miss Tonks seems to...
Author
Formats
Description
Bringing Regency England vibrantly to life, the fifth volume in the Poor Relation series follows the escapades of Colonel Sandhurst as he helps a young woman avoid an unwanted marriage.
Owing to an unfortunate wager made by Sir Philip, the poor relations are once again scrounging around for a plan for solvency. This time it is Colonel Sandhurst to the rescue. After happening on Sir Randolph's lovely daughter Frederica, who is running away to escape...
15) Back in Society
Author
Formats
Description
Life is finally looking up for the poor relations. The Prince of Wales' coat of arms gleams over the hotel entrance. All but one of the rooms are filled by the open-handed Prince Hugo and his entourage. The owners have taken on a new partner, Mr. Jason Davy, a popular actor. Even curmudgeonly Sir Philip hasn't uttered anything loathsome for days. They have finally reached a position comfortable enough to allow them to consider offers to buy the hotel.
The...
16) Liza of Lambeth
Author
Formats
Description
Liza of Lambeth (1897) is a novel by W. Somerset Maugham. Written while the author was living as a medical student in London, the Maugham's debut marked an electrifying start to an illustrious career in literature. Controversial for its portrayal of infidelity, domestic violence, and women's reproductive health, Liza of Lambeth is a gritty realist tale that takes an honest look at, the everyday struggles of actual Londoners in a time of celebration...
Author
Formats
Description
With her children evacuated and her husband at the front, Tory Pace is grudgingly sharing the family home with her irascible mother; working at the local gelatin factory-to help the war effort-and generally doing just about as well as could be expected in difficult times. Her quiet life is thrown into turmoil, however, when her prisoner-of-war husband, Donald, makes an outrageous demand for sexual gratification. He wants a dirty letter! Horrified,...
Author
Formats
Description
A colorful and eloquent look at Churchill, with fascinating new insights into the food he ate, the Champagne he loved, and the important guests he charmed. This delectable volume is a sumptuous and intellectual treat. A friend once said of Churchill: "He is a man of simple tastes; he is quite easily satisfied with the best of everything." But dinners for Churchill were about more than good food, excellent champagnes and Havana cigars. "Everything"...
Author
Formats
Description
Victoria Trumbull is a feisty ninety-two-year-old who refuses to let her age stop her from having fun—or investigating crime. Phoebe Eldridge, a short-tempered woman who lives alone, has sold the family land to a developer who made an offer that seemed to good to resist. When the Conservation Trust enlists Victoria to search that land for an endangered plant, she and her eleven-year-old after-school assistant are rewarded with the discovery of a...