Rosie Thomas – författare

An epic love story and adventure set against the stunning backdrop of Antarctica.Alice Peel is a geologist. She believes in observation and proof. But now she stands alone on the deck of a rickety Chilean ship as a stark landscape reveals itself. Instead of the familiar measurable world, everything that lies ahead of her is unknown and unpredictable.Six weeks earlier her life was comfortably unfolding in an Oxford summer. Then, with her relationship suddenly in pieces, she accepted an invitation to join a group working at the end of the earth: Antarctica.James Rooker is a man on the run. He's been running since his childhood in New Zealand. Now, there is nowhere further to go. He has taken a job working on the same small Antarctic research station.Alice discovers an ice-blue and silver world, lit by sunlight. Nothing has prepared her for the beauty of it, or the claustrophobia of a tiny base shared with eight men and one other woman. The isolation wipes out everyone's past, and tension crackles in the air. But there is a jolt of recognition between Alice and Rooker that is like nothing she has ever known. And it is in Antartica that she discovers something else that will change her life forever … if she survives.

A gripping, exotic and epic tale for fans of Dinah Jeffries and Victoria HislopThe unexpected arrival of her willful teenage granddaughter, Ruby, brings life and disorder to 82-year-old Iris Black’s old house in Cairo. Ruby, driven away from England by her fraught relationship with her own mother, is seeking refuge with the grandmother she hasn’t seen for years.An unlikely bond develops as Ruby helps Iris document her fading memories of the glittering, cosmopolitan Cairo of World War Two, and of her one true love – the enigmatic Captain Xan Molyneux – whom she lost to the ravages of war.This lost love shaped Iris’s past – and will affect Ruby’s future in ways they could not have imagined…

The new novel from the Sunday Times bestselling author of Iris and Ruby.Connie Thorne was a foundling, a child left by her mother for strangers to find. Forty years on, without ever being able to discover her true identity, she has put all her energy into creating a flawless shell for herself.As a child, she was musical, her sister Jeanette was deaf. One of them was dark, the other sunny. Yet they both fell in love with the same man. And her feelings for Bill, Jeanette's husband, are the one part of herself that Connie can never reshape.When she hears the news that her sister is dying, the last thing Connie wants is to leave her Bali home and return to London. But with the bitterness of betrayal still between them, Connie and Jeanette have to learn to forgive each other.Surrounded by family, can Constance make her peace with who she really is – and who she loves?

An epic love story and adventure set against the harsh, beautiful background of Antarctica.Alice is a scientist: she relies on method, precision, proof. But when her relationship with Oxford artist Peter Brown collapses spectacularly, she is forced to evaluate her own life for the first time.In her thirties, childless, tied to Oxford by her work, it is time to break away. Alice''s mother, Margaret Mather, is famous as an adventuring anthropologist, one of the first women in Antarctica many years before. Alice accepts an invitation to go in Margaret''s place to the southernmost point of the earth, and stay there for months, away from the world that has let her down. Little does she expect the strangeness of a place coloured blue and white, lit by an unearthly permanent sunlight. And nothing has prepared her for the close confines of a small base shared with eight men and one other woman. A base where tensions run high, where the hostile environment traps them, and where the distance means no-one has a past. Where she feels such a strong attraction to a man with danger in his face that she cannot speak to him. And where she discovers something else that will change her life forever … if she survives.

From the bestselling author of Iris and Ruby comes a novel in which a group of old friends reunite to start a new stage of their lives.Miranda Meadowe decides a lonely widowhood in her crumbling country house is not for her. Reviving a university dream, she invites five of her oldest friends to come and join her to live, and to stave off the prospect of old age. All have their own reasons for accepting.To begin with, omens are good. They laugh, dance, drink and behave badly, as they cling to the heritage they thought was theirs for ever: power, health, stability. They are the baby boomers; the world is theirs to change. But as old attractions resurface alongside new tensions, they discover that the clock can’t be put back.When building work reveals an Iron Age burial site of a tribal queen, the outside world descends on their idyllic retreat, and the isolation of the group is breached. Now the past is revealed; and the future that beckons is very different from the one they imagined.

For fans of The Tea-Planter’s Wife and Victoria Hislop comes a gripping story of doomed love and secrets in 1940s Kashmir. Within one exotic land lie the secrets of a lifetime… In 1938, young bride Nerys Watkins accompanies her missionary husband on a posting to India. Up in Srinagar, the British live on beautiful wooden houseboats and dance and gossip as if there is no war. But when the men are sent away to fight Nerys is caught up in a dangerous friendship.Years later, when Mair Ellis clears out her father’s house, she finds an antique shawl with a lock of child’s hair wrapped up in its folds. Tracing her grandparents’ roots back to Kashmir, Mair uncovers a story of great love and great sacrifice.

From the bestselling author of Iris and Ruby comes a novel of a group of friends. They were wild in the 60s; but now they face turning sixty themselves.Miranda Meadowe decides a lonely widowhood in her crumbling country house is not for her. Reviving a university dream, she invites five of her oldest friends to come and join her to live, and to stave off the prospect of old age. All have their own reasons for accepting.To begin with, omens are good. They laugh, dance, drink and behave badly, as they cling to the heritage they thought was theirs for ever: power, health, stability. They are the baby boomers; the world is theirs to change. But as old attractions resurface alongside new tensions, they discover that the clock can’t be put back.When building work reveals an Iron Age burial site of a tribal queen, the outside world descends on their idyllic retreat, and the isolation of the group is breached. Now the past is revealed; and the future that beckons is very different from the one they imagined.

A novel from the Sunday Times bestselling author of Iris and Ruby.Connie Thorne was a foundling, a child left by her mother for strangers to find. Forty years on, without ever being able to discover her true identity, she has put all her energy into creating a flawless shell for herself.As a child, she was musical, her sister Jeanette was deaf. One of them was dark, the other sunny. Yet they both fell in love with the same man. And her feelings for Bill, Jeanette's husband, are the one part of herself that Connie can never reshape.When she hears the news that her sister is dying, the last thing Connie wants is to leave her Bali home and return to London. But with the bitterness of betrayal still between them, Connie and Jeanette have to learn to forgive each other.Surrounded by family, can Constance make her peace with who she really is – and who she loves?

An epic love story and adventure set against the stunning backdrop of Antarctica.Alice Peel is a geologist. She believes in observation and proof. But now she stands alone on the deck of a rickety Chilean ship as a stark landscape reveals itself. Instead of the familiar measurable world, everything that lies ahead of her is unknown and unpredictable.Six weeks earlier her life was comfortably unfolding in an Oxford summer. Then, with her relationship suddenly in pieces, she accepted an invitation to join a group working at the end of the earth: Antarctica.James Rooker is a man on the run. He's been running since his childhood in New Zealand. Now, there is nowhere further to go. He has taken a job working on the same small Antarctic research station.Alice discovers an ice-blue and silver world, lit by sunlight. Nothing has prepared her for the beauty of it, or the claustrophobia of a tiny base shared with eight men and one other woman. The isolation wipes out everyone's past, and tension crackles in the air. But there is a jolt of recognition between Alice and Rooker that is like nothing she has ever known. And it is in Antartica that she discovers something else that will change her life forever … if she survives.

An epic tale of doomed love and family secrets, set against the stunning exotic backdrop of 1940s Kashmir.Within one exotic land lie the secrets of a lifetime…Newlywed Nerys Watkins leaves rural Wales for the first time to accompany her husband on a missionary posting to India. Deep in the exquisite heart of Kashmir lies the lakeside city of Srinagar, where the British live on carved wooden houseboats and dance, flirt and gossip as if there is no war.But the battles draw closer, and life in Srinagar becomes less frivolous when the men are sent away to fight. Nerys is caught up in a dangerous friendship, and by the time she is reunited with her husband, the innocent Welsh bride has become a different woman.Years later, when Mair Ellis clears out her father’s house, she finds an exquisite antique shawl, a lock of child’s hair wrapped within its folds. Tracing her grandparents’ roots back to Kashmir, Mair embarks on a quest that will change her life forever.

Rich and alive with descriptions of the bustling streets of old Cairo, and the vast, foreboding desert surrounding it – `Iris and Ruby’ is a stirring story of mothers, daughters and the distance between three generations of one family.Stiflingly quiet and claustrophobic, Iris Black's Cairo house is suddenly disturbed by the unexpected arrival of her troubled and wilful granddaughter, Ruby. Teenage Ruby has run away from England to seek solace with the grandmother she hasn't seen for many years. An unlikely bond is formed as the two open themselves up to one another.Ruby helps Iris document her deteriorating memories of the glittering, cosmopolitan Cairo of World War Two, a time when she lost her heart to her one true love – the enigmatic Captain Xan Molyneux – and then lost him to the ravages of the war.Iris’ early devastation shapes her own heart and that of her daughter and granddaughter in turn.- and leads the two women into terrible danger in the Egyptian desert.

From the bestselling author of the phenomenally successful The Kashmir ShawlLondon 1885As a turbulent and change-filled century draws to a close, there has never been a better time to alter your fortune. But for a beautiful young woman of limited means, Eliza’s choices appear to lie between the stifling domesticity of marriage or a downwards spiral to the streets – no matter how determined she is to forge her own path.One night at a run-down theatre, she meets the charismatic Devil Wix – showman, master of illusion, fickle friend. Drawn into his circle, Eliza becomes the catalyst of change for his colleagues – a dwarf, an eccentric engineer, and an artist – as well as Devil himself. And as Eliza embarks on a dangerous adventure, she must decide which path to choose, and how far she should go when she holds all their lives in her hands.

From the bestselling author of the phenomenally successful The Kashmir ShawlLondon 1885As a turbulent and change-filled century draws to a close, there has never been a better time to alter your fortune. But for a beautiful young woman of limited means, Eliza’s choices appear to lie between the stifling domesticity of marriage or a downwards spiral to the streets – no matter how determined she is to forge her own path.One night at a run-down theatre, she meets the charismatic Devil Wix – showman, master of illusion, fickle friend. Drawn into his circle, Eliza becomes the catalyst of change for his colleagues – a dwarf, an eccentric engineer, and an artist – as well as Devil himself. And as Eliza embarks on a dangerous adventure, she must decide which path to choose, and how far she should go when she holds all their lives in her hands.

A stunning novel from the SUNDAY TIMES bestselling author of THE KASHMIR SHAWLLondon 1919The Great War is over and London lies on the brink of an uncertain future. With the misery and horror of war in the past, hope begins to emerge for the women who have waited at home, as for the first time, they have taken steps towards political, economic and personal independence. But the men who fought and survived the trenches believe the future is theirs by right, and any woman who has celebrated her freedom must now redouble her efforts to keep it.Nancy Wix is just such a woman. Born into a down-at-heel family, Nancy has always known that the visions she has seen since she was a child will set her apart from her peers. A chance encounter with a gifted medium reveals a way in which she might take hold of her future and she grasps the opportunity with a desperate intensity – for this is the age of spiritualism, and Nancy’s gift will see her star rise in a time when decimated families are desperate to hold on to their dead sons.As the roaring twenties dawn, Nancy strives to break free from the rigid bonds of society and find her own place. The only thing that could hold her back is her love for an unattainable man…

A stunning novel from the SUNDAY TIMES bestselling author of THE KASHMIR SHAWLLondon 1919Born into a down-at-heel family, Nancy Wix is more than her past dictates – more ambitious than the daughter of a faded showman, more original than a woman who will be confined by polite conventions. The end of the Great War has left a stricken London on the brink of an uncertain future, and with their hard-won freedoms now in doubt Nancy and her fellow suffragettes must strive all over again for the right to control their own destinies.At a time when shattered families are struggling to let go of their dead, Nancy discovers she has a gift that offers hope to the loved ones of the lost generation, and a chance encounter reveals a way in which she might use it for her own ends.As Nancy struggles to break free from the rigid bonds of society and find her place in the world, the only thing that could hold her back is her love for an unattainable man…

Two of Rosie Thomas’s best-loved titles, IRIS AND RUBY and CONSTANCE, packaged together for the first time as an ebook set.IRIS AND RUBY tells the story of mothers, daughters and the distance between three generations of one family. Stiflingly quiet and claustrophobic, Iris Black’s house is Cairo is suddenly disturbed by the unexpected arrival of her troubled and wilful teenage granddaughter, Ruby. Ruby has run away from England to seek solace with the grandmother she hasn’t seen for many years. As she helps Iris document her deteriorating memories of the glittering, cosmopolitan Cairo of World War Two, an unlikely bond is formed.In CONSTANCE, Connie Thorne was a foundling, a child left by her mother for strangers to find. Forty years on, she has put all her energy into creating a flawless shell for herself. Her sister Jeanette is her opposite in every way, yet they both fell in love with the same man, causing a huge rift between them. Years later, Jeanette contacts Connie to tell her she is dying. Can they put the past behind them and make their peace?

From the bestselling author of The Kashmir Shawl. Available on ebook for the first time.Dinah Steward has a secret. Hidden beneath the comfortable family life she shares with her successful husband Matthew and their two sons lies a shameful secret that has haunted Dinah for fifteen years. She and Matt never speak of it or the impossible choice he forced her to make all those years ago: they think the cracks have been papered over.But when a chance encounter brings the past into sharp focus once more, Dinah realises she can no longer deny the truth. She decides to risk everything – her husband, her sons, her perfect lifestyle, in order to claim what was always hers.

`An intelligent and moving novel’ The TimesWhat happens when you fall in love with the one person you shouldn't?In the aftermath of a family tragedy, Jess Arrowsmith is powerless to resist her attraction to Rob, twenty years her junior, and the person she has reason to hate most in the world. As their love affair threatens to blow her family apart, Jess finds herself in a desperate struggle to defuse a crisis that puts at risk all she holds dear…

`Terrific stuff . . . a real weepy’ The TimesOne Love. One Chance. Once Sacrifice.For Sam McGrath a brief encounter with a young woman, on a turbulent flight, changes his life. On impulse, crazily attracted to her, her vows to follow her – all the way to Nepal.Finch Buchanan is flying out as doctor to an expedition. But when she reaches the Himalayas she will be reunited with a man she has never been able to forget.Al Hood has made a promise to his daughter. Once he has conquered this last peak, he will leave the mountains behind forever.Everest towers over the group, silent and beautiful. And the passionate relationship between Finch, Al and Sam – two men driven by their own demons, and a woman with a dream of her own – begins to play itself out, with tragic consequences . . .

From the bestselling author of The Kashmir Shawl. Available on ebook for the first time.Olivia Giorgiadis has left her English roots behind. She lives on a tiny Greek island, married to a local man, mother to two small sons. Year on year, island life has followed a peaceful unchanging rhythm.Until now. An earthquake ravages the coast, its force devastating the island. In the aftermath comes a stranger: an Englishwoman, destitute but for the clothes she wears.Olivia welcomes the stranger into her home, the potter's house. But as Kitty melts into the family and the village community, so Olivia begins to sense that her mysterious visitor threatens all she holds dear…

From the bestselling author of The Kashmir Shawl. Available on ebook for the first time.Sadie's life is calm and complete. She is a mother, a good friend, and the robust survivor of a marriage she deliberately left behind. She has come to believe that she has everything she wants, or deserves.But now her father is dying: the vital, elusive man who spent his life creating perfumes for other women is slipping away from her. When she realises that she can never make her peace with him, Sadie begins to look back over her childhood. In pursuing his separate life, Sadie's father ignored her, subjecting her to succession of 'aunties', leaving her loveless and alone.As Sadie confronts the truth about her father, her relationship with her son Jack appears to be breaking down and she is intent on saving it. Then the arrival of one of those fleeting women from her father's past starts a train of events that even Sadie cannot control…

From the bestselling author of The Kashmir Shawl. Available on ebook for the first time.In London, on the brink of the Sixties, two runaways plunge into the whirl of Soho nightlife.Mattie faces the hard slog of repertory companies and a sleazy strip-club in search of fame as an actress. But, when it comes, stardom is not enough, and the love that Mattie desires seems to elude her.Julia choose marriage and Ladyhill, a beautiful Dorset manor house. Then, after the tragedy, she realises that to achieve true independence she will have to risk her marriage and her child.Though each has to make her own choices, their friendship – despite the guilt and betrayal – endures over three turbulent decades.

From the bestselling author of The Kashmir Shawl. Available on ebook for the first time.Jake, Clio and Julius Hirsh and their cousin Lady Grace Stretton formed a charmed circle in those lost innocent days before the Great War – united against the world.Old now, Clio recounts their story for her biographer: Jake's wartime experiences, which moved him to work as a doctor in the London slums; Clio and Grace, flappers flitting through bohemian Fitzrovia to emerge as literary lion and pioneering Member of Parliament respectively; the music that drowned for Julius the crash of jackboots in thirties Berlin.But for herself, Clio remembers a different story. Desperate lies and bitter secrets, hopeless love and careless betrayal, jealous loyalties more like fetters. And above all, the truth about Grace, beautiful, destructive siren at the centre of the circle.

From the bestselling author of The Kashmir Shawl. Available on ebook for the first time.For Bell Farrer, rising wine journalist, it was the break of her career. To interview both reclusive Baron Charles de Gillesmont of Chateau Reynard in Bordeaux and business genius Valentine Gordon of California's Dry Stone Wineries; compare Old World and New, passion and profit, centuries of tradition and the very latest technology.But suddenly Bell's career is the last thing on her mind. Because Charles and Valentine are not just opposites but enemies, locked in lethal rivalry by their only common bond, the women they choose to love. Once, Charles's wife now Bell.How can Bell, loving one, still feel the draw of the other? Yet only by throwing herself into both worlds in turn can she finally recognize her own…

From the bestselling author of The Kashmir Shawl. Available on ebook for the first time.They were three modern women. They came to Oxford University full of hopes and dreams and would leave forever changed.Helen: shy, quiet and hopelessly in love with Lord Oliver Mortimore, the dazzling, self-destructive blond who lives for fast cars, drink and drugs.Chloe: glamorous and confident, abandoning a high-powered career and broken affair, obsessively drawn to her philandering English professor.Pansy: stunning heiress and aspiring actress, driven to prove she is more than an irresistible magnet to the men who flock to her.Together for one unforgettable year, they would share a lifetime of emotions and a very special friendship…

From the bestselling author of The Kashmir Shawl. Available on ebook for the first time.On a small stretch of untamed coast, five old clapboard houses gaze out to sea. Fourteen-year-old May Duhane, arriving with her father and sister for the summer, feels isolated and resentful.Leonie Beam, staying in the neighbouring house with her husband's family, shares May's isolation for she is unhappy in her marriage. She confides in Elizabeth Newton, an aging widow who keeps the beach's secrets.Meanwhile, May has discovered the diary of a dead girl, her own age. To unravel its story, she must immerse herself in the past. As she does so, she begins to feel she is destined to follow in the dead girl's footsteps.

From the bestselling author of The Kashmir Shawl. Available on ebook for the first time.It was a love forbidden but never forgottenWhen Harry Cotton returned to Wales, Angharad Owain found paradise – despite her father's violent warnings against the Cottons of Llyn Fair. For she and Harry were in love, untouchable.Until a shocking revelation drives Angharad to flee, pregnant and penniless, to London. There, struggling to make a new life for herself and her child, she resolves to put the past behind her, joy and heartache alike.But neither time nor success can banish her memories. In the end, Angharad must confront the sinister shadows that lie between her and Harry – the man she will always love, but may never have …

From the bestselling author of The Kashmir Shawl. Available on ebook for the first time.Born into an aristocratic family, beautiful Amy Lovell leads a whirlwind life of extravagant parties and debutante balls.But Amy, curious about the world beyond the narrow confines of her class, is ill-suited to a life of indulgence. Eagerly embracing a nursing career, she is drawn into the radical politics of the day.As the spectre of war looms, Amy's bittersweet love for the proud miner Nick Penry – a love which defies the differences between them – leads them to the conflict in Spain, where love and pain become inseparable agonies.

From the bestselling author of The Kashmir Shawl. Available on ebook for the first time.Sometimes the victims of tragedy are the ones who survive.Annie and Steve are from different worlds. She is a wife and mother, he is a wealthy executive with a stream of broken relationships in his wake. They do not know each other exists until one morning, on a shopping expedition, they becomes victims of a bomb blast, thrown together in the debris to fight for their lives.As they lie in the darkness and the rubble, the hours slowly tick by. To ward off fear and death they talk: of everything they have to live for, of their disappointments, loves, failures and their hopes. And so a bond is created that binds them deeper than family, than friends, than lovers. With such strange intimacy, such strange trust, how can they get through the future without each other?