Norah Lofts – författare

And now, in this low and critical moment, something in Penelope, something which had understood courage and resource and action, though she herself had never been brave or resourceful or active, stirred and shook itself. Penelope Shadow is quite hopeless at female pursuits, such as housework, looking after children or darning a sock. One day she buys a typewriter and realizes that she has a flare for writing romantic novels. As one bestseller after another springs from her fertile mind, she is able to buy a house and live a comfortable life. Being equally inept at managing staff, she loses a number of housekeepers before employing a capable and attentive young man. When local gossip ensues, he declares his love and they are married. But are his motives true? Is she in danger? As events twist and turn, she has to summon the strength of her feisty heroines to work out what they would do in the novel's denouement.

Elenaor is young, high-spirited, supremely intelligent, heiress to the vast Duchy of Aquitaine - at a time when a woman's value was measured in terms of wealth. Her vivid leadership inspired and dazzled those about her. And yet, born to rule, she was continually repressed and threatened by the men who overshadowed her life. This is the story of a brilliant, medieval figure - of a princess who led her own knights to the Crusades, who was bride to two kings and mother of Richard the Lion Heart. It is the rich, incredible story of Eleanor Of Aquitaine.

"The Town House" is the first in a trilogy of novels by Norah Lofts about the inhabitants of a country house in Suffolk from the late fourteenth century to the middle of the twentieth. It begins with the story of Martin Reed, a serf existing under the control of a universally accepted and supported hierarchy. His rebellion, in defence of the woman he loves, casts both of them into the unknown. Freed from his acceptance of circumstance, Reed forges a new path, a path which culminates in the building of the House, and the foundations of a dynasty.

"The House at Sunset" is the third in a trilogy of novels by Norah Lofts about the inhabitants of a country house in Suffolk from the late fourteenth century to the middle of the twentieth. Covering the period from 1740 to 1956, it traces the lives of its characters through the Georgian and Victorian eras and into the modern age. Written with Lofts' customary attention to historical detail, it follows their fortunes as history moves inexorably towards the post-War period and the accession of Elizabeth II, so different from the late fourteenth century when serf Martin Reed first built the House.

Forced to flee Revolutionary France after the brutal guillotining of her beloved father, Isabella de Savigny arrives at Nethergate, the Suffolk house of her cousin, hoping for sympathy and succour. Instead, as a poor relation, she is forced to live the life of a servant and suffer the casual cruelty of lady's maid Martha Pratt. When she is seduced and abandoned by the son of the house, Isabella is forced to marry Martha's brother, and her struggle to survive truly begins. However, her misery is lessened when her daughter is born, and for her sake she decides to fight back against this hostile world.

Ever since she first appeared in the Tudor court, Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII's second queen, has been a mystery and a source of controversy. Even her birth is shrouded in obscurity; both year and place are the subject of debate. Was she beautiful, as those who fell under her spell believed, or was she a rather plain girl blessed with striking eyes and a wealth of black hair? More mysterious still is the nature of her role in one of the most turbulent times in British history. Henry, who wrote her impassioned love letters and composed songs in her praise, honoured her as no woman was ever honoured before, and finally defied the Pope in order to marry her. Her enemies at the time believed she owed her success to witchcraft, and indeed she bore two 'devil's marks'. But was she, in fact, only a hapless pawn, subject to the passions of a notoriously mercurial autocrat? Why was her fall from favour so sudden and complete? Henry's love changed to a hatred so vicious that he conspired with his chief minister to have her accused of adultery with five men - one her own brother. Four of them went to the block protesting her innocence - and their own.Includes 80 Illustrations (40 in colour)