Secret Rooms

Product Description

A plotting Duchess a mysterious death & a castle full of lies in Catherine Baileys The Secret Rooms". At 6 am on 21 April 1940 John the 9th Duke of Rutland & one of Britains 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 Kings 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 Britains 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."