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by Barbara Taylor Bradford
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by Barbara Taylor Bradford
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by Barbara Taylor Bradford
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by Barbara Taylor Bradford
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Review
Praise for Barbara Taylor Bradford: 'The storyteller of substance.' The Times 'Queen of the genre.' Sunday Times 'Few novelists are as consummate as Barbara Taylor Bradford at keeping the reader turning the page. She is one of the world's best at spinning yarns.' Guardian
Bloated beginning of a new Bradford saga about English tycoons.Departing from the Harte series, which rode so profitably upon the coattails of A Woman of Substance (1979), this launch is strictly for Bradford devotees. The story opens in 1904 at Ravenscar, ancestral manor of Edward Deravenel, scion of an aristocratic Yorkshire family that lost control of Deravenels, a trading company dating from the Norman Conquest with worldwide outposts in mining, exporting, agriculture-and soon, oil. For 60-odd years, the Deravenel Grants, the Lancashire branch of the family, have dominated the firm, where Edward's father, Richard, toils as an undercompensated executive. When Richard and his brother-in-law Rick, along with Edward's brother and cousin, perish in a mysterious fire near Deravenels Tuscan marble quarry, Edward and his cousin Neville investigate, convinced the Grants had their relatives killed. The Tuscan murders can't be traced to the Grants, nor can power-behind-the-throne Margot, wife of demented Chairman Henry Grant, be implicated in the ensuing mayhem. Edward is beset by thugs as he leaves his mistress Lily's house in London, and Lily dies after a rampaging stallion upsets her carriage. Since Edward's faction never lacks the wherewithal to topple the Grants, needing only to marshal the evidence of mismanagement, embezzlement and Henry's mental incapacity, the murders-including a poisoning committed at Edward's behest-seem beside the point, as do the perfunctory sex scenes between irresistible Edward and his ladyloves, and spitfire French temptress Margot and her company stooges. Dogged attention to detail of the dress, decor and grazing habits of the well-to-do make for a ponderous pace. Despite umpteen novels (Just Rewards, Jan. 2006, etc.), Bradford lacks finesse at getting her characters in and out of rooms. A rote exercise in blockbuster-building. (Kirkus Reviews)
Bloated beginning of a new Bradford saga about English tycoons.Departing from the Harte series, which rode so profitably upon the coattails of A Woman of Substance (1979), this launch is strictly for Bradford devotees. The story opens in 1904 at Ravenscar, ancestral manor of Edward Deravenel, scion of an aristocratic Yorkshire family that lost control of Deravenels, a trading company dating from the Norman Conquest with worldwide outposts in mining, exporting, agriculture-and soon, oil. For 60-odd years, the Deravenel Grants, the Lancashire branch of the family, have dominated the firm, where Edward's father, Richard, toils as an undercompensated executive. When Richard and his brother-in-law Rick, along with Edward's brother and cousin, perish in a mysterious fire near Deravenels Tuscan marble quarry, Edward and his cousin Neville investigate, convinced the Grants had their relatives killed. The Tuscan murders can't be traced to the Grants, nor can power-behind-the-throne Margot, wife of demented Chairman Henry Grant, be implicated in the ensuing mayhem. Edward is beset by thugs as he leaves his mistress Lily's house in London, and Lily dies after a rampaging stallion upsets her carriage. Since Edward's faction never lacks the wherewithal to topple the Grants, needing only to marshal the evidence of mismanagement, embezzlement and Henry's mental incapacity, the murders-including a poisoning committed at Edward's behest-seem beside the point, as do the perfunctory sex scenes between irresistible Edward and his ladyloves, and spitfire French temptress Margot and her company stooges. Dogged attention to detail of the dress, decor and grazing habits of the well-to-do make for a ponderous pace. Despite umpteen novels (Just Rewards, Jan. 2006, etc.), Bradford lacks finesse at getting her characters in and out of rooms. A rote exercise in blockbuster-building. (Kirkus Reviews)
Product Description
The Ravenscar Dynasty, introducing the house of Deravenel, launches Barbara Taylor Bradford's epic new series spanning a century. Ravenscar: A house, a legacy and a dynasty. On a bitterly cold day in 1904, the Deravenel family's future changes for ever. When Cecily Deravenel tells her 18-year-old son Edward of the death of his father, brother and cousins in a fire, a part of him dies as well. Edward is comforted by his cousin Neville Watkins, who is suspicious of the deaths. The two men vow to seek the truth, avenge the deaths and take control of the business empire usurped sixty years before. And so begins an epic saga about an astonishing family, set in extraordinary times. Handsome, charismatic and a notorious womaniser, Edward battles his cousin, Henry Grant, for control of the family empire. Elizabeth Wyland, a young widow and a great beauty, stands by his side, and they are secretly married. She is power hungry, and ambitious. But Edward also has a mistress: Jane Shaw, a constant in his life. And as Elizabeth's jealousy damages their marriage, Edward's only solace is Bess, his brilliant first born. Edward's position as the glamorous head of the Deravenels is fatally rocked when betrayal comes from within. Soon, catastrophe threatens to destroy the family and the business!Power and money, passion and adultery, ambition and treachery -- all illuminate a dramatic saga set against the backdrop of the Edwardian Era and the Belle Epoque, just before the First World War.
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