Diana Norman – författare

A brilliant, stylish novel encompassing the robust life of Boston and London, just at the time of greatest resentment and rebellion by the colonists against the British Government, and displaying the remarkably contemporary prejeudice shown by people on both sides.Makepeace Burke, keeper of a tavern on the waterfront in Boston, could no more watch a fellow creature drown than she could stop the wind blowing. But the price she paid for rescuing an English aristocrat after he had been attacked by the mob was high. She might be a supporter of the more reasonable colonists but she had committed an apparently unforgiveable sin. So her inn became deserted, her brother was tarred and feathered, and her respectable fiancee and his family deserted her. When the Patriots turned to burning her home, she knew she had to take the offer of the much despised Englishmen and so, saved by the Navy and accompanied by her remarkable retinue, she sails for London.She marries her Englishman as his second wife but finds that English society does not easily accept uneducated, colonial, ex-tavernkeepers – and the first wife, well connected and refusing to acknowledge a divorce, proves a dirty fighter. But Makepeace, having been chased out of one town by intolerance, is not going to let that happen again. And the reader is rooting for her all the way.Diana Norman has written an unusual, sparkling novel, truly unputdownable – she is an addictive taste.

A brilliant, stylish novel encompassing the robust life of Boston and London, just at the time of greatest resentment and rebellion by the colonists against the British Government, and displaying the remarkably contemporary prejeudice shown by people on both sides.Makepeace Burke, keeper of a tavern on the waterfront in Boston, could no more watch a fellow creature drown than she could stop the wind blowing. But the price she paid for rescuing an English aristocrat after he had been attacked by the mob was high. She might be a supporter of the more reasonable colonists but she had committed an apparently unforgiveable sin. So her inn became deserted, her brother was tarred and feathered, and her respectable fiancee and his family deserted her. When the Patriots turned to burning her home, she knew she had to take the offer of the much despised Englishmen and so, saved by the Navy and accompanied by her remarkable retinue, she sails for London.She marries her Englishman as his second wife but finds that English society does not easily accept uneducated, colonial, ex-tavernkeepers – and the first wife, well connected and refusing to acknowledge a divorce, proves a dirty fighter. But Makepeace, having been chased out of one town by intolerance, is not going to let that happen again. And the reader is rooting for her all the way.Diana Norman has written an unusual, sparkling novel, truly unputdownable – she is an addictive taste.

A remarkable, sparkling historical novel by the author of A Catch of Consequence.Two women, both searching for apparently missing people, meet in the chaos of wartime Plymouth. Britain is at war with the French and the rebellious American colonies. But where the French captured by the British navy are recognized prisoners of war, the Americans are the non-combatants of their era.Diana Stacpoole a young aristocrat recently saved by the death of her husband from a brutal marriage, is searching for the imprisoned son of a colonial friend: Makepeace Burke, a self-made woman, is looking for her daughter and companions, rescued from their destroyed ship but somehow lost on arrival in Britain.The journey of discovery both women make through docks and prisons, government offices and brothels, palatial houses and smugglers hideaways, not only allows them to find the missing persons but also to forge an unlikely friendship and to find remarkable lovers. Finding liberty for others leads them to splendid liberty for themselves.

This open university reader is a wide-ranging interdisciplinary collection of material from primary sources, illustrating the relationship between cultural change and religious belief in sixteenth-century Europe. It contains more than eighty extracts drawn from a variety of genres including political, religious, philosophical and legal writing, diaries, letters, plays, poems and fiction. Some have never previously been published, others have not been reprinted since their original appearance in the sixteenth century, and a number are translated into modern English for the first time. `Culture and Belief in Europe 1450 - 1600' includes writing from such renowned thinkers as Erasmus, Luther, Machiavelli, and Sir Thomas More, besides that of lesser-known authors. Works of literature also feature extensively, and writings from Cervantes, Rabelais, Edmund Spenser, and Sir Philip Sidney amongst many others are all to be found here. A general introduction describes the anthology's central aim - to explore aspects of the interrelationship between the politics, religion and writing of the period. The book is divided into eight thematic sections. Spelling in the extracts has been sensitively modernized throughout, and the editors provide a headnote and appropriate explanatory annotation for each item.

A captivating historical novel from the national bestselling author, as Ariana Franklin, of Mistress of the Art of Death. Makepeace Burke serves Patriots at her late father''s tavern on the Boston waterfront in 1765 and hates the redcoats with a vengeance. But even she can''t watch an angry mob drown an Englishman. She rescues him and nurses him back to health-and falls in love. In Patriot Boston, hers is an unforgivable sin-made worse by the fact that her Englishman turns out be the aristocratic Sir Philip Dapifer. Philip must smuggle Makepeace aboard a ship bound for London and save her life at the expense of the world she knows. Rich in period detail, bringing the years of colonial rebellion to vivid life, A Catch of Consequence is a stylish novel of Boston and England, and of a woman who defies convention in both worlds.

From the author also known as Ariana Franklin-the thrilling sequel to A Catch of Consequence that "moves at a cracking pace."( London Times) Makepeace Hedley is frantic when she learns that her young daughter, sailing home to England from the rebelling American colonies, has been taken prisoner by the British. With her usual determination, Makepeace sets out for Plymouth to rescue her child. And when Countess Diana Stacpoole is asked by an American friend to help his son, also a British prisoner, Diana responds quickly and leaves her genteel past behind. In the chaos of wartime Plymouth the two women face social outrage, public scandal, and even arrest. Amidst docks and prisons, government bureaucracy and brothels, they forge an unlikely and unshakable friendship. And in freeing others, they discover their own splendid liberty.

Few of those Philippa loves in London return her affection. Not the love of her life, who has a new bride. Not even her widowed mother, Makepeace Burke. So Philippa decides on a marriage of convenience to a prudish, if kind, man.

Across the Channel in France, the Reign of Terror is causing the beheading of thousands from the French nobility. Among those in danger is Philippa''s friend, the Marquis de Condorcet. Not only has Philippa the means of rescuing him from the guillotine, she''s got the courage. And as fate would have it, Philippa will find love where she least expects it-while staring death in the face.