Rose Tremain

Set in the mystic, brooding, and wild landscape of Cornwall, the rugged Atlantic foot of England, Danni, a housekeeper at Manderville Hall—a grand and historic house owned by the wealthy and widowed Lord DeWithers—falls prey to the glance of a young and beautiful visitor, the novelist Daphne Du Maurier. For one, their affair is an all-consuming love, for the other, an intoxicating realisation of her secret longings.

Gerald is on the edge of a complete breakdown. During an afternoon spent with his father, he starts to come to terms with the wounding confusions and mistakes of his past-his lies, his girl-friend's suicide, his mother's obsessive love of his - younger brother and her death in a hospital when he arrived too late to communicate his real feelings for her.

A talented, independent artist lives by the sea with her daughter. As summer approaches, she faces two threats to her way of life: the local doctor who is in love with her and her unhappy sister who comes to stay.

A woman in a state of personal crisis finds it hard to communicate with her husband and family.

James van Santen, a white South African writer facing imminent arrest for acts of sabotage, has escaped to England. He leaves behind him not only a violent political life but also his handsome lover, Stephen. With little money or inclination to work, he fights a battle of wills with his Jamaican landlady, Katherine.

Neglected by her family, kept apart from her grandchildren, desperately short of money, Bea begins to gamble - at first for small stakes, but ultimately for the highest stake of all: revenge for the past.

Set in the mystic, brooding, and wild landscape of Cornwall, the rugged Atlantic foot of England, Danni, a housekeeper at Manderville Hall—a grand and historic house owned by the wealthy and widowed Lord DeWithers—falls prey to the glance of a young and beautiful visitor, the novelist Daphne Du Maurier. For one, their affair is an all-consuming love, for the other, an intoxicating realisation of her secret longings.

Gerald is on the edge of a complete breakdown. During an afternoon spent with his father, he starts to come to terms with the wounding confusions and mistakes of his past-his lies, his girl-friend's suicide, his mother's obsessive love of his - younger brother and her death in a hospital when he arrived too late to communicate his real feelings for her.

A talented, independent artist lives by the sea with her daughter. As summer approaches, she faces two threats to her way of life: the local doctor who is in love with her and her unhappy sister who comes to stay.

A woman in a state of personal crisis finds it hard to communicate with her husband and family.

James van Santen, a white South African writer facing imminent arrest for acts of sabotage, has escaped to England. He leaves behind him not only a violent political life but also his handsome lover, Stephen. With little money or inclination to work, he fights a battle of wills with his Jamaican landlady, Katherine.

Neglected by her family, kept apart from her grandchildren, desperately short of money, Bea begins to gamble - at first for small stakes, but ultimately for the highest stake of all: revenge for the past.