About this ebook
Autumn 1939. In an alternative world, where Edward VIII still sits on the throne, storm clouds gather over Europe, German troops amass and a ‘King’s Party’ of fascist peace campaigners is stealthily undermining the war effort.
For Cynthia Kirkpatrick, the war brings a new-found freedom – lunchtime drinks at the Ritz, rented attic rooms, late-night rackety parties and intriguing new acquaintances.
But two new friends loom larger than others, her glamorous colleague Anthea and Tyler, an enigmatic American working at the Embassy. Initially Cynthia is dazzled by them both but soon discovers they have secrets which could prove dangerous, both to her and the country at large...
About the author
D.J. Taylor's novels include English Settlement, which won a Grinzane Cavour Prize, Trespass and Derby Day, both of which were long-listed for the Man Booker Prize, and Kept: A Victorian Mystery, a Publishers’ Weekly Book of the Year. His other books include After the War: The Novel and England Since 1945, Thackeray, Orwell: The Life, which won the 2003 Whitbread Biography Prize, and Bright Young People: The Rise and Fall of a Generation 1918-1940. He lives in Norwich with his wife, the novelist Rachel Hore, and their three sons.
‘A writer of formidable accomplishment’ Washington Post
‘Taylor is marking out a territory as distinct and disturbing as Greeneland, with the same imperative towards moral inquisition and a flatlands melancholy that is all his own’ Hilary Mantel, Sunday Times
‘Taylor is a felicitous, intelligent writer’ Herald