Abdication
Author: Nicolson, Juliet
Edition: Unabridged
Format: Unabridged
EAN: 9780792792185
Release Date: 01-09-2012
Languages: English
Binding: preloaded_digital_audio_player
Package Dimensions: 7.5 x 5.6 x 1.0 inches
Details: Product Description
England, 1936. The year began with the death of a beloved king and the ascension of a charismatic young monarch, sympathetic to the needs of the working class, glamorous and single. By years end, the world would be stunned as it witnessed that new leader give up his throne in the name of love, just as the unrest and violence that would result in a Second World War were becoming impossible to ignore. During the tumultuous intervening months, amidst the whirl of social and political upheaval, wise-beyond-her-nineteen-years May Thomas will take the first, faltering steps toward creating a new life for herself. Just disembarked at Liverpool after a long journey from her home on a struggling sugar plantation in Barbados, she secures a position as secretary and driver to Sir Philip Blunt, a job that will open her eyes to the activities of the uppermost echelons of British society, and her heart to a man seemingly beyond her reach. Outwardly affable spinster Evangeline Nettlefold is a girlhood friend to the American socialite Wallis Simpson, a goddaughter to Lady Joan Blunt and a new arrival to London from Baltimore. She will be generously welcomed into societys most glittering circles, where ones daily worth is determined by ones proximity to a certain H. R. H. and his married mistress. But as the resentment she feels toward Wallis grows in magnitude, so too does the likelihood of disastrous consequences.
About the Author
Juliet Nicolson is the author of two works of history, "The Great Silence: 1918 1920 Living in the Shadow of the Great War" and "The Perfect Summer: Dancing into Shadow in 1911", and a novel, "Abdication". As the grand-daughter of Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicolson and the daughter of Nigel Nicolson she is part of a renowned and much scrutinised family and the latest in the family line of record-keepers of the past. She lives with her husband in East Sussex, not far from Sissinghurst, where she spent her childhood. She has two daughters, Clemmie and Flora, and one grand-daughter, Imogen.
Carole Boyd s theater work includes a year performing with Alan Ayckbourn s Scarborough Company where she created the role of June in "Way Upstream", while her television credits include "Hetty Wainthropp Investigates" and "Mystery!: Campion". Carole also plays the notorious Lynda Snell in "The Archers", is a regular reader on BBC Radio 4 s "Poetry Please", and has won three audiobook awards for her recordings.