From Barnardo boy to original virgin soldier; from apprentice journalist in London's Fleet Street to famous novelist...

At

...

Six months after her husband's sudden death, Leonora Galloway sets off for a holiday in Paris with her daughter Penelope. At last the time has come when secrets can be shared & explanations begin... Their journey starts with an unscheduled stop at the imposing Thiepval Memorial to the dead of the Battle of the Somme near Amiens. Amongst those commemorated is Leonora's father. The date of his death is recorded as 30th April, 1916. But Leonora wasn't born until 14th March 1917. Penelope at once supposes a simple wartime illegitimacy as the clue to her mother's unhappy childhood & the family's sundered connections with her aristocratic heritage, about which she has always known so little. But nothing could have prepared her, or the reader, for the extraordinary story that is about to unfold. ...

Six months after her husband's sudden death, Leonora Galloway sets off for a holiday in Paris with her daughter Penelope. At last the time has come when secrets can be shared & explanations begin... Their journey starts with an unscheduled stop at the imposing Thiepval Memorial to the dead of the Battle of the Somme near Amiens. Amongst those commemorated is Leonora's father. The date of his death is recorded as 30th April, 1916. But Leonora wasn't born until 14th March 1917. Penelope at once supposes a simple wartime illegitimacy as the clue to her mother's unhappy childhood & the family's sundered connections with her aristocratic heritage, about which she has always known so little. But nothing could have prepared her, or the reader, for the extraordinary story that is about to unfold. ...

Anna Maxwell is a pixie-like bad girl with a penchant for brawny men, determined to prove her innocence when accused of stealing from her father's company. Los Angeles-based bounty hunter Derek Rowland sets off in pursuit of his fugitive, discovering that Anna's resolve is as strong as her libido. Derek's colleague, Freddie James, is convinced that Derek is being taken for a ride ...

Anna Maxwell is a pixie-like bad girl with a penchant for brawny men, determined to prove her innocence when accused of stealing from her father's company. Los Angeles-based bounty hunter Derek Rowland sets off in pursuit of his fugitive, discovering that Anna's resolve is as strong as her libido. Derek's colleague, Freddie James, is convinced that Derek is being taken for a ride ...

Why are we so fascinated by ruins? Do we see them as jig-saws & riddles or romantic evocations of the damage of Time, complete with crumbling stone & ivy? Do they stir us to remember past glory or warn against future arrogance? In this elegant, provocative book, the brilliant young art-historian Christopher Woodward looks back to the start of the cult in the eighteenth century, when follies were built in English landscape gardens, artists & writers thrilled to Rome's poetry of decay, & in Paris the great chef Careme even served blancmanges shaped like classical ruins. He takes us from Troy & Pompei to Sicilian palaces & Nazi fantasies, & whirls us forward to modern times
- to the shattered Statue of Liberty in Planet of the Apes, to Florida's Museum of Natural Phenomena, designed as a court-house dumped upside-down by a hurricane & to Chelsea Flower Show's br&-new ' Millennium Ruin'. Even the decay of an ordinary house can be as moving as the collapse of a temple
- with its fascinating stories & characters, & its telling illustrations, In Ruins is full of strange delights & startling surprises, exploring the mysterious, melancholy charm of eternal fragments.

...

Why are we so fascinated by ruins? Do we see them as jig-saws & riddles or romantic evocations of the damage of Time, complete with crumbling stone & ivy? Do they stir us to remember past glory or warn against future arrogance? In this elegant, provocative book, the brilliant young art-historian Christopher Woodward looks back to the start of the cult in the eighteenth century, when follies were built in English landscape gardens, artists & writers thrilled to Rome's poetry of decay, & in Paris the great chef Careme even served blancmanges shaped like classical ruins. He takes us from Troy & Pompei to Sicilian palaces & Nazi fantasies, & whirls us forward to modern times
- to the shattered Statue of Liberty in Planet of the Apes, to Florida's Museum of Natural Phenomena, designed as a court-house dumped upside-down by a hurricane & to Chelsea Flower Show's ' Millennium Ruin'. Even the decay of an ordinary house can be as moving as the collapse of a temple
- with its fascinating stories & characters, & its telling illustrations, In Ruins is full of strange delights & startling surprises, exploring the mysterious, melancholy charm of eternal fragments.

...

Why are we so fascinated by ruins? Do we see them as jig-saws & riddles or romantic evocations of the damage of Time, complete with crumbling stone & ivy? Do they stir us to remember past glory or warn against future arrogance? In this elegant, provocative book, the brilliant young art-historian Christopher Woodward looks back to the start of the cult in the eighteenth century, when follies were built in English landscape gardens, artists & writers thrilled to Rome's poetry of decay, & in Paris the great chef Careme even served blancmanges shaped like classical ruins. He takes us from Troy & Pompei to Sicilian palaces & Nazi fantasies, & whirls us forward to modern times
- to the shattered Statue of Liberty in Planet of the Apes, to Florida's Museum of Natural Phenomena, designed as a court-house dumped upside-down by a hurricane & to Chelsea Flower Show's br&-new ' Millennium Ruin'. Even the decay of an ordinary house can be as moving as the collapse of a temple
- with its fascinating stories & characters, & its telling illustrations, In Ruins is full of strange delights & startling surprises, exploring the mysterious, melancholy charm of eternal fragments.

...