Faced with the prospect of marriage to an elderly, red-haired, squinting Duke, the passionate Lady Juliana elopes with her penniless Scottish beau. But what happens when this high-born, high-bred society beauty's romantic notions of the Highlands of Scotland meet cold, damp reality? Susan Ferrier's 1818 novel Marriage is a witty and satirical examination of female lives in the Regency era. This edition takes the 1819 second edition of Marriage as its base text, incorporating those changes which Ferrier made when the work was fresh and sharp, but refusing the bowdlerisation and sentimental sugar of the 1841 edition, suited for Victorian tastes and moralities. Edited and introduced by Dorothy McMillan, and supported by extensive historical notes, this new edition captures the humour, sensitivity and elegance of the original bestselling novel, and gives Ferrier her proper place among Scotland's notable writers.

In this latest book, the renowned Southern-based designers discuss the principles that guide their extraordinary work. Five stylish houses are presented that resonate with the McAlpine aesthetic of elegant restraint and hospitality: a colour palette of heathery pastels and warm white, and grace in every piece that wears its age with dignity. Throughout this design primer, we are shown the steps that these masters have honed to produce striking interiors. Presented are five sections that cover such useful topics as the transformative powers of light through reflective materials like silver and glass; and bringing the natural world indoors with accents of shells, stones, and horn. Evocative still life compositions are devised, representative of the hues and textures that express a harmonious mood. In one of the featured residences, the prevalence of white creates a modern ambience. In another, shades of gray combined with highlights of silver, glass, and gilt establish a restful atmosphere. Colours and textures drawn from the outside world - the reflective blue of water, the soft lustre of eggshells, and the velvety brown underside of a magnolia leaf - bring natural beauty inside casual and traditional houses. All these spaces are filled with sensuous pleasure, and quiet messages of welcome and comfort; combining slipcovered furniture with Paris Flea Market finds, they appeal to a wide range of tastes.

Susan Ferrier sold more copies of her novels than her contemporary, Jane Austen. Sir Walter Scott declared her his equal. Why, then has she been lost to history? On the 200th anniversary of this sharply observed, comic novel, it is time to rediscover her brilliance. 'What have you to do with a heart? What has anybody to do with a heart when their establishment in life is at stake? Keep your heart for your romances, child, and don't bring such nonsense into real life - heart, indeed!' Understanding that the purpose of marriage is to further her family, Lady Juliana nevertheless rejects the ageing and unattractive - though appropriately wealthy - suitor of her father's choice. She elopes, instead, with a handsome, penniless soldier and goes to Scotland to live at Glenfarn Castle, his paternal home. But Lady Juliana finds life in the Scottish highlands dreary and bleak, hastily repenting of following her heart. After giving birth to twin daughters, Lady Juliana leaves Mary to the care of her sister-in-law, while she returns to England with Adelaide. Sixteen years later, Mary is thoughtful, wise and kind, in comparison to her foolish mother and vain sister. Following two generations of women, Marriage, first published in 1818, is a shrewdly observant and humorous novel by one of Scotland's greatest writers.