Eliza Stanhope

Synopsis
The engagement of Julia to the self satisfied Richard Beaumont is the event of the year at the Hampshire estate of Julia's parents in 1814. But foe Eliza Stanhope, Julia's cousin and childhood companion, it is a matter for scorn not congratulations. Surely one should marry for love and not for social advantage? However, Richard's presence brings the unexpected and exciting consequence of meeting his younger brother, Francis. Francis is newly returned from the Peninsular war, accompanied by a delightful fellow officer and friend, Pelham Howell. In the first of these new acquaintances Eliza meets a spirit as fierce as her own, in the second a charm and devotion she never thought to receive. It is loyalty the two men feel for each other and must resolve the ensuing triangle. And so the transformation of a willful child into a loving woman takes place. But the complete world that Eliza creates around her marriage is shattered by the news of Napoleon's escape from Elba and the call to arms that will take her to her moment of truth on the field of Waterloo.

The Country Habit – editor

For centuries the English lived on the land and even today, as cities encroach further and further on the remaining green fields and the number of working country villages dwindles, there is still a particularly powerful feeling for the countryside. This anthology, edited and introduced by novelist Joanna Trollope, spans the centuries and aims to evoke both the dream and the reality, from Anglo-Saxon laments to Tudor husbandry, and from Regency fetes-champetres to pre-war tennis parties. The extracts are drawn from private journals and letters as well as the work of writers such as Jane Austen, Laurie Lee, Thomas Hardy, Virginia Woolf, Christopher Marlowe and William Wordsworth.

Britannia’s Daughters

Joanna examines the contribution of women in building and sustaining the British Empire. She draws on a vast range of sources, including diaries and letters home. She provides a  panoramic picture of the countless women who departed Britain for India, Australia, the Far East, Canada and Africa — often in search of opportunities unavailable at home. Here are penniless pioneers and governors’ wives, missionaries and prostitutes, explorers and army nurses. They people this book as they peopled the Empire — their astonishing courage and endurance, their remarkable personal stories are vividly and enthrallingly recaptured.

The Book Boy

Alice is thirty-eight. She has a house, a husband, two teenage children and a part-time job. She thinks she ought to be happy. But she isn't. Instead, she feels she has vanished, that she is like something lost down the back of the sofa. Because Alice has a secret which is never spoken of in the family as they are all ashamed, Alice most of all. Alice can't read. Then two things happen. Her son, Craig, brings home his school's leather-clad bad boy, a terrible influence. And Alice 's friend Liz tells her she's tired of feeling sorry for her and trying to help. Alice - timid, quiet Alice - must start out on her own brave journey and for it she chooses the strangest companion. For the first time in her life, she knows what she wants and she is going to get it.