Gone With the Windsors. Laurie Graham

Читать онлайн.
Название Gone With the Windsors
Автор произведения Laurie Graham
Жанр Классическая проза
Серия
Издательство Классическая проза
Год выпуска 0
isbn 9780007369836



Скачать книгу

id="ucfb33572-dd03-5149-8a9f-9b3997dfe532">

      LAURIE GRAHAM

       Gone With the Windsors

       Copyright

      Fourth Estate

      An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd. 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF

       www.harpercollins.co.uk

      Copyright © Laurie Graham 2005

      Laurie Graham asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

      Cover illustration © Rachel Ross

      A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

      All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this ebook on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins ebooks

      HarperCollinsPublishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content and written content in this ebook has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication

      Source ISBN: 9780007146765

      Ebook Edition © SEPTEMBER 2012 ISBN: 9780007369836 Version: 2017-03-30

       Praise

      From the reviews of Gone with the Windsors:

      ‘Graham succeeds in crystallising the lives of a social set whose raison d’être was the next poolside gin-fizz. Alongside le tout Baltimore, we await to see how far Wallis will jeopardise her hard-won security with Ernest for the title of “Queen of Nowhere”. It’s a testament to Graham’s pitch-perfect storytelling that we care’

       Independent

      ‘Graham’s sunny control makes the abdication crisis sound as fresh and tangy as Wally’s favourite dinner party dessert, strawberry sherbet. Maybell Brumby is a wonderful, sassy creation: not exactly one of your heart-of-gold heroines, but, more entertainingly, one with a heart of gilt’

       Sunday Times

      ‘With an enviable sleight of hand, Laurie Graham affectionately impales her hilariously oblivious heroine. I ate this book right up’

      MARY GUTERSON, author of We Are All Fine Here

      ‘[An] absolute pleasure to read from start to finish … Wryly observed secondary characters are also a joy … By infusing her sharp satire and meticulous social observation with a certain sweetness, Laurie Graham proves herself a master of showing without ever needing to tell’

       Time Out

      ‘Laugh-out-loud funny’

       Daily Telegraph

      ‘Refreshing, honest and very funny … enjoyable without being thoughtless, smart without being superficial’

       Scotsman

      ‘Maybell Brumby is a marvellous comic creation’

       Scotland on Sunday

      ‘Laurie Graham is such a vivid, creative storyteller’

       TLS

       Dedication

       To Howard

      Contents

       Cover

       Title Page

       1st January 1934

       1st January 1935

       2nd January 1936, Wilton Place

       1st January 1937

       2nd January 1938

       2nd January 1939

       8th January 1940

       8th January 1946, Sweet Air, Baltimore

       Keep Reading

       About the Author

       By the Same Author

       About the Publisher

       10th March 1932, Sweet Air, Baltimore

      Six months since Danforth Brumby surrendered to the first hint of kidney failure and left me a widow. It always was the risk in marrying an older man. Yesterday his headstone was raised, so now it’s time to look to the future. I still have my youth and my looks. Men are already flocking to my side and women are pursuing me as always for my advice and my vivacious presence at their dinner tables. Le tout Baltimore is impatient for my return to society, so tomorrow I shall drive into town, place my chinchilla in cold storage, and order a selection of spring outfits from Madame Lucille. A new chapter opens.

      13th March 1932

      A