This summer holiday vintage classic exploring the mystery of a buried Cornish hotel invites us to solve the puzzle as detectives: perfect for Agatha Christie fans, with a dash of Richard Osman ... 'I am loving it!' Nigella Lawson 'Hilarious and perceptive ... Perfect.' Daily Mail 'Entertaining, beautifully written, and profound.' Tracy Chevalier 'Tense, touching, human, dire, and funny ... A feast indeed.' Elizabeth Bowen 'Kennedy is not only a romantic but an anarchist.' Anita Brookner 'Oh boy, what a treat; wonderfully sharp and funny ... Page-turningly good!' Lissa Evans 'So full of pleasure that you could be forgiven for not seeing how clever it is.' Cathy Rentzenbrink (foreword) Cornwall, Midsummer 1947. Pendizack Manor Hotel is buried in the rubble of a collapsed cliff. Seven guests have perished, but is it murder, and what brought this strange assembly together for a moonlit feast before this Act of God - or Man? Over the week before the landslide, we meet the hotel guests in all their eccentric glory: and as friendships form and romances blossom, sins are revealed, and the cliff cracks widen .. Reader Reviews: 'One of the best books I have ever read ... Viva Ms. Kennedy, you were truly marvellous!' ***** 'The best book I've ever read. Yes, I know that's a big statement! Kennedy is quickly becoming my all-time favorite author ... A first-rate literary genius.' ***** 'This is bar none, one of the best books I have ever read.' ***** 'Offers us the chance to solve a very unusual kind of mystery ... An unexpectedly engaging literary game.' **** 'A magnificent rediscovery ... Kennedy's masterpiece is a searing and unflinching look at postwar England ... Elegantly and tartly written, this smart and haunting novel offers one of the most unforgettable endings ... A brilliant and moving literary feast to be enjoyed without any moderation! ***** 'I'm longing to read this again! Clever Kennedy! Is it a thriller? Is it a morality play or an exploration of divine justice? Or is it a family/village saga and maybe even a romance? ... Terrifically readable with a marvellous cast.' ***** 'Such a good idea, and brilliantly executed ... I was unable to stop reading, absorbed completely in the company of the motley group. It's almost like you're eavesdropping on them. After finishing it, I find myself still thinking about it ... A fabulous read.' ***** 'One of my favorite kinds of books: a forgotten treasure..' *****

"The Oracles" was the twelfth novel published by Margaret Kennedy (1896-1967) and its titular subjects are the members of a group of provincial intellectuals who happen upon what seems to them a piece of stunningly advanced modern sculpture. Possibly they are not to be blamed for failing to see that it is, in fact, only a commonplace garden chair that has been struck by lightning and twisted radically out of shape. However, under a delusion, The Oracles endeavour to force their fellow townsmen to purchase the 'work' with public money. This comedy of suspense, tension and confusion presents yet another splendid demonstration of Margaret Kennedy's remarkable storytelling gift.

"Lucy Carmichael" - Margaret Kennedy's tenth novel, first published in 1951 and a work by a mature novelist at the height of her powers - opens on an unforgettably disastrous scene, as the novel's eponymous heroine, preparing to savour her wedding day, is instead jilted at the altar. Lucy Carmichael's recovery from this calamity forms the substance of the story that follows. She takes a job in the rural Lincolnshire village of Ravonsbridge, at an educational institute established by a wealthy manufacturer for the cultural benefit of the local community. This employment will come to offer Lucy a second chance at romance, but it also brings her unexpectedly into contact with a host of remarkable characters who will influence how she sees the world."Lucy Carmichael" has a density of realism, full of details and observations that the reader will recognize as truthful, and the rich sense of real people leading real lives, as Margaret Kennedy paints of her characters in three dimensions and gives each one his or her due within the story.

A young Welshman, Evan Jones, arrives in London towards the end of the 1930s. Attractive and agreeable to outsiders, he has the power to sell anything to anyone; and he sees other people as an opportunity. Across the city, Mrs Carter Blake sells her psychic powers, mixed with a healthy dose of charlatanism. Desperate to maintain a respectable life, though ashamed of her work, she preys upon the superstitious and susceptible rich. And the self-made capitalist, Corris Morgan, is one of the richest men in Europe, with the power to destroy anyone who crosses him. But even Corris has his weak points - and as he struggles to escape the fate he fears, both Mrs Carter Blake and Evan are drawn into his orbit and inexorably swept along with him. The Midas Touch was first published in 1938. Margaret Kennedy's The Fool of the Family is also available from Faber Finds.

The fool of the title in this charming light-hearted Margaret Kennedy reissue is solid, reliable, put-upon Caryl, one of the innumerable offspring of the eccentric musician Sanger. He too is a musician and to save money to put on a concert, he works in the evening as a cinema pianist on the Lido in Venice. Within the space of one summer week, two fateful meeting disrupt his calm and ordered life: that with beautiful Fenella and, much less welcome, with his handsome, amoral half-brother Sebastian.

'Most people knew in their hearts that the lid had been taken off hell, and that what had been done in Guernica would one day be done in London, Paris and Berlin.' Margaret Kennedy's prophetic words, written about the pre-war mood in Europe, give the tone of this riveting 1941 wartime memoir: it is Mrs Miniver with the gloves off. Her account, taken from her war diaries, conveys the tension, frustration and bewilderment of the progression of the war, and the terror of knowing that the worst is to come, but not yet knowing what the worst will be. English bravery, confusion, stubbornness and dark humour ('Nanny says that an Abbess is threatening to swallow the whole of Europe') provide the positive, more hopeful side of her experiences, in which she and her children move from Surrey to Cornwall, to sit out the war amidst a quietly efficient Home Guard and the most scandalous rumours. Where Stands A Winged Sentry (the title comes from a 17th-century poem by Henry Vaughan) was only published in the USA, and has never been published in the UK before. Margaret Kennedy (1896-1967) made her name as a novelist with The Ladies of Lyndon (1923) and The Constant Nymph (1924), and continued publishing until the year before her death. The Introduction will be by Faye Hammill, Professor of English Literature at the University of Glasgow.

Avant-garde composer Albert Sanger lives in a ramshackle chalet in the Swiss Alps, surrounded by his 'Circus' of assorted children, admirers and a slatternly mistress. The family and their home life may be chaotic, but visitors fall into an enchantment, and the claims of respectable life or upbringing fall away. When Sanger dies, his Circus must break up and each find a more conventional way of life. But fourteen-year-old Teresa is already deeply in love: for her, the outside world holds nothing but tragedy.

Betsy Canning is dissatisfied with life. She has always taken pains to be healthy, popular and well-treated, but despite her wealth, her comfortable homes and beautiful children, happiness eludes her. The problem must lie, she thinks, in her marriage to Alec, and a neat, civilised divorce seems the perfect solution. But talk of divorce sparks interference from family and friends, and soon public opinion tears into the fragile fabric of family life and private desire. Alec and Betsy's marriage will not be the only casualty, and in this newly complicated world, happiness is more elusive than ever.

THE CONSTANT NYMTH -- CONTENTS -- BOOK I SANGERS CIRCUS BOOK I1 NYMPHS AND SHEPHERDS BOOK 111 THE SILVER STY EOOK IV THREE MEET PAGE . l -- 1924 -- BOOK I SANGEKS CIRCUS - CHAPTER I AT the time of his death the hame of Albert Sanger was barely known to the musical public of Great Britain. Among the very few who had heard of him there were even some who called him SanjB, in the French manner, being disinclined to suppose that great men are occasionally born in Hammersmith. That, however, is where he was born, of lower middle class parents, in the latter half of the nineteenth century. The whole world knew of it as soon as he was dead and buried. Englishmen, discovering a new belonging, became excited it appeared that Sanger had been very much heard of everywhere else. His claims to immortality were canvassed eagerly by people who hoped soon to have an opportunity of hearing his work. His idiom, which was demonstrably neither Latin nor Gothic nor yet Slav, was discovered to be Anglo-Saxon. Obituary columns talked of the gay simplicity of his rhythms, an unmistakably national feature, which, they declared, took one back to Chaucer. They lamented that yet another prophet had passed without honour in his own country. But for this the British public was not entirely to blame few people can sincerely admire a piece of music which they have not heard. During Sangers lifetime his work was never performed in England. It was partly his own fault since he composed nothing but operas and these on a particularly grandiose scaIe. Their production was a risky enterprise, under the most promising conditions and in England the conditions attending the production of an opera are never promising. The presssuggested that other British composers had been heard in London repeatedly while Sanger languished in a little limbo of neglect. This was not quite the case. The limbo has never been as little as that. Sanger, moreover, hated England, left it at an early age, never went back, and seldom spoke of it without some strong qualification. Appreciation, though tardy, was generous when it came. A special effort was made, about a year after Sangers death, and The Nine Muses, an enterprising repertory theatre south of the river, undertook the production of Prester John, the shortest and simplest of the operas. The success of the piece was unqualified. All the intelligentzia and some others flocked to hecrr, and proved by their applause how ready they were to appreciate English music as soon as ever they got the chance. There were no howls of rage such as had arisen when Prester John was produced in Paris no free fights in the gallery between the partizans and foes of the composer. The whole thing was as decorous as possible and the respectful ardour of the audience, their prolonged cheers at the end, . left no doubt as to Sangers posthumous position in his own country. They were not unlike the . ovation accorded to a guest of honour who arrives a little late. Raving renounced his native land. Sanger adopted no other. He roved about from one European capital to another, never settling anywhere for long, driven forwards by his strange, restless fancy...

Agatha is aware of an intensity, a powerful storm of emotion briefly awakened by a shortlived love affair with her cousin Gerald, that is entirely lacking from the successful marriage on which she is about to embark. Beautiful, young and carefully brought up, Agatha knows she is securing a perfect and luxurious future in marrying handsome John Clewer and becoming Mistress of Lyndon, and she soon becomes the perfect country house hostess. But when Gerald reappears and war in Europe disturbs the sheltered comfort of Lyndon forever, Agatha is once again haunted by the idea of a different life.

Adapted by Margaret Kennedy, from her own novel, with Basil Dean.10 women, 10 men