by NicholasColeridge (Author)
As Anthony Anscombe surveys Winchford Priory, his beautiful Elizabethan house in Oxfordshire, he has the distinct feeling that he's under siege. He may be surrounded by his sprawling estate and one of the best pheasant shoots in the country, but lurking in the village are more than one or two reminders of a complicated past. His first wife was the hauntingly beautiful girl he married in an impulsive rush of hedonism. Amanda was never going to live up to her role as the wife of a country squire, so why does she still cast such a long shadow in Anthony's life? Sandra, the second wife, came to Anthony's rescue. Sturdy, dependable and domesticated, Sandra had plans to turn the Priory into a proper family home, until that summer when it all went horribly wrong...And then there's Dita, a force of nature. Smart, tough, rapaciously social and high-maintenance, Dita storms through Anthony's life, organising and rearranging, particularly when it comes to previous Mrs Anscombes and their children. With the entire cast of his life roosting in the village, it's no wonder Anthony doesn't have a minute's peace...
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 464
Publisher: Orion
Published: 03 May 2006
ISBN 10: 075285254X
ISBN 13: 9780752852546
Book Overview: Another big, juicy, glamorous blockbuster about the English and their class systems: think of it as PENNY VINCENZI writes SNOBS This is a book about English social life - both country and urban. In GODCHILDREN, Marcus Brand terrorised and manipulated his seven godchildren; A MUCH MARRIED MAN is the flipside - Anthony Anscombe is manipulated and terrorised by his stepchildren and ex-wives. There's a huge appetite in the market for big, epic novels and Nicholas Coleridge writes brilliantly. Plenty of twists and turns: divorce, extra marital sex, illegitimate children, births, deaths, stepmothers, hunting and vast wealth... Glamorous and well-connected, Nicholas Coleridge writes from experience, and captures the nuances of social etiquette and class brilliantly.