Cavendon Chronicles
3 primary works
Book 1
Opening on the eve of the First World War, set around a stately home, Cavendon Hall, its owners the aristocratic Ingham family and the Swann family who serves them.
Two entwined families: the aristocratic Inghams and the Swanns who serve them. The Earl and Countess rely on their faithful retainers Alice and Walter Swann as their young family grows up.
One stately home: Cavendon Hall, a grand imposing house nestled in the beautiful Yorkshire Dales
A society beauty: Lady Daphne Ingham is the most beautiful of the Earl’s four daughters. Being presented at Court and making a glittering marriage is her destiny.
But in the summer of 1913, a devastating event changes her future forever, and threatens the Ingham name. Yet life as the families of Cavendon Hall know it – Royal Ascot, supper dances, grouse season feasts and a full servants’ hall – is about to alter beyond recognition as the storm clouds of war gather.
Book 2
A stately home. The roaring twenties. And four spirited girls who must forge a new future for themselves - and for the estate.
On a summer weekend in 1926 the Ingham family gathers at Cavendon Hall, the great house in Yorkshire that has been their family home for centuries, summoned by the Earl. With them are the Swanns who have served the house for generations - and know all their secrets.
The estate is under threat: the aftermath of the Great War has left Cavendon facing ruin. Its heir is pushing for divorce so he can follow his heart. And the Earl has a surprise of his own.
Four young women from both sides of the house will be the ones to shape its future - Daphne, fighting to modernise her ancestral home; Cecily Swann, forging a path as a fashion designer in London; Deidre, the career girl, and Dulcie, the outspoken debutante. They will change the estate's future for good or ill as the roaring twenties burn towards the Great Depression. Nothing will ever be the same again...
Book 3