Duty, desire, and deception reside under one roof.
Standing in the remote windswept moors of Northern England, Coldwell Hall is the perfect place to hide. For the past five years, Kate Furniss has maintained her professional mask so carefully that she almost believes she is the character she has Coldwell's respectable housekeeper.
It is the summer of 1911 that brings new faces above and below the stairs of Coldwell Hall—including the handsome and mysterious new footman, Jem Arden. Just as the house's shuttered rooms open, so does Kate's guarded heart to a love affair that is as intense as it is forbidden. But Kate can feel her control slipping as Jem harbors secrets of his own.
Told in alternating timelines from the last sun-drenched summer of the Edwardian Age to the mud-filled trenches of WWI, The Housekeeper's Secret opens its door to a world of romance, the truths we hold onto, and the past we must let go.
Parade's End is an acclaimed masterpiece by Ford Madox Ford, who endeavored to capture the essence of his era as a historian of his own time. The novel's subject is the world as it culminated in war, a backdrop that frames the story of Christopher Tietjens, an officer and gentleman often described as the last English Tory.
Ford intricately follows Tietjens from the secure, orderly world of Edwardian England into the chaotic madness of the First World War. Amidst the backdrop of war, Ford explores the complex sexual warfare between Tietjens and his faithless wife, Sylvia. This narrative is a work of truly amazing subtlety and profundity.
Parade's End stands as a testament to Ford's literary prowess, offering a gripping study of character and a vivid portrayal of a world at war.