BY THE AUTHOR SHORTLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE

INTRODUCED BY POLLY DEVLIN

'Psychologically sharp, socially knowing and closely knit' IRISH TIMES

'She was . . . marvellous' GUARDIAN

'A writer of genius' WALL STREET JOURNAL

One glorious gothic mansion - Garonlea - and two rather different ladies who would be Queen . . .

Lady Charlotte French-McGrath has successfully ruled over her family with a rod of iron until the arrival of Cynthia: beautiful, young, talented, selfish - and engaged to her son Desmond.

When Cynthia enters the Jazz Age, on the surface her life passes in a whirl of hunting, drinking and romance. But the ghosts of Garonlea are only biding their time: they know the source of their power, a secret handed on from one generation to the next.

A riotous, enthralling portrait of leisured life at the family home of Garonlea in the early years of the century

About the Author
Molly Keane (1904-1996) was an Irish novelist and playwright. She grew up at Ballyrankin in County Wexford and was educated at a boarding school in Bray, County Wicklow. She married Bobby Keane, one of a Waterford squirearchical family in 1938 and had two daughters. She used her married name for her later novels, several of which (Good Behaviour, Time After Time) have been adapted for television. Between 1928 and 1956, she wrote eleven novels, and some of her earlier plays, under the pseudonym M. J. Farrell. Her husband died suddenly in 1946, and following the failure of a play she published nothing for twenty years. In 1981, Good Behaviour came out under her own name. The novel was warmly received and was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. Polly Devlin is a writer, broadcaster and filmmaker. She holds an OBE for services to literature. After spending her childhood in Northern Ireland, at the age of twenty-two she took up her first job - as a writer, and soon a features editor for British Vogue in London. A couple of years later, she moved to New York to work on American Vogue - where, once more, she was very much part of the scene she wrote about in her newspaper column and articles including for The Sunday Times, New Statesman and Observer. Her first book, All of Us There is a Virago Modern Classic. She divides her time between London and New York where until her recent retirement, she taught Creative Non-Fiction at Barnard College, Columbia University. She has also been a judge for various awards which include the Booker Prize (1984), Irish Times Literary Award (1994) and Pushkin Prize (1998).

Reviews
She was . . . marvellous * Guardian *
Keane's distinctive blend of elegant savagery and deep affection . . . its human relationships tortured like bonsai by good form, its open-hearted, sensual passion for horses, dogs and landscape * Evening Standard *
Psychologically sharp, socially knowing and closely knit * Irish Times *
She is akin to Jane Austen in her feeling for the minute of human behaviour -- Polly Devlin
I admired many authors. But Molly, I loved -- Diana Athill
The characterisation of women is first class -- Sebastian Faulks
A writer of genius * Wall Street Journal *
Molly Keane ... is robust about sinful human nature and the intrigues of the heart... * V.S. Pritchett *
Psychologically sharp, socially knowing and closely knit * IRISH TIMES *
The characterisation of women is first class * Sebastian Faulks *



Book Information
ISBN 9781844083268
Author Molly Keane
Format Paperback
Page Count 336
Imprint Virago Press Ltd
Publisher Little, Brown Book Group
Weight(grams) 268g
Dimensions(mm) 196mm * 128mm * 24mm