Secret Rooms

Product Description

A Plotting Duchess a Mysterious Death & a Castle Full of Intrigue in Catherine Bailey's The Secret Rooms. At 6 am on 21 April 1940 John the 9th Duke of Rutland & one of Britain's wealthiest men ended his days virtually alone lying on a makeshift bed in a dank cramped suite of rooms in the servants' quarters of his own home Belvoir Castle in Leicestershire. For weeks as his health deteriorated his family his servants
- even the King's doctor
- pleaded with him to come out but he refused. After his death his son & heir Charles the 10th Duke of Rutland ordered that the rooms be locked up & they remained untouched for sixty years. What lay behind this extraordinary set of circumstances? For the first time in The Secret Rooms Catherine Bailey unravels a complex & compelling tale of love honour & betrayal played out in the grand salons of Britain's stately homes at the turn of the twentieth century & on the battlefields of the Western Front. At its core is a secret so dark that it consumed the life of the man who fought to his death to keep it hidden. This extraordinary mystery from the author of Black Diamonds perfect for lovers of Downton Abbey Brideshead Revisited & The Suspicions of Mr Whicher. Praise for The Secret Rooms: Reads like the best kind of mystery story. It is a tale of mistresses & heirlooms cowardice & connivance & a deeply dysfunctional family.. .gripping". (Sunday Times). " Astonishing.. .jaw-dropping... It would spoil the book if I revealed the whole works suffice it to say.. .what a family". (Sunday Telegraph). " An extraordinary detective operation". (John Julius). Norwich Catherine Bailey is the author of Black Diamonds. She read history at Oxford University & is a successful award-winning television producer & director making a range of critically acclaimed documentary films inspired by her interest in twentieth century history. She lives in West London."