Who fired the arrow that killed King William Rufus, eldest son of William the Conqueror, in 1100 AD? No one knows - but in King of the Wood, acclaimed historical novelist Valerie Anand sets out a compelling and fascinating story that fits the known facts and provides a highly credible answer. William's addiction to vice and callous treatment of his subjects made him enemies on both sides of the English Channel, and provoked bitter resentment among noblemen, to say nothing of his disregarded younger brothers. His open homosexuality and disregard for religion also enraged the Church. As the...

Crown of Roses A SWEEPING HISTORICAL SAGA OF RICHARD III Petronel Faldene, married off at fourteen to the dour and spiteful Lionel Eynesby and taken far away from home to be chatelaine of his estate, never suspected that her destiny would become entangled with the future of England and the most powerful men in the land. But in the England of King Edward IV, torn by civil war and the bitter conflict between the houses of York and Lancaster, anything can happen, as public and private lives alike are touched by treacherous intrigue that hangs like a disease over the court, blighting loyalties,...

I want a quiet life from now on. And I don't want to fall in love.... I think I shall do better to stay away from affairs of the heart. One can be so hurt. I don't want to go through that again. Ninian Whitmead, almost forty years old, has already loved deeply, then lost once in his life. He has resigned himself to life alone on his seaside Cornish estate, Polmawgan House, without wife or family. But he is not prepared for the shipwreck of a Courteen pirate ship off the coast of Cornwall that leaves Parvati, a young Indian girl, stranded in a foreign land as its only survivor. At first out of...

WEST of SUNSET is the compelling saga of three families who come to England to start a new life and their struggle to accept-and be accepted by-an alien culture. Mohan Lal Bhatia and his wife Leela arrive first, Hindus who mean to bring Indian fabrics to the English but soon find themselves enclosed in the growing Indian community in west London. Thev see no need for integration with the English around them, and will not be compelled to face that challenge until the next generation. Kartar Singh Virk and his wife Nita want to participate more fully in English life, while upholding the proud...

When their businessman father dies suddenly, leaving his affairs in disarray and his family in dire financial straits, it seems that sisters Charlotte and Victoria have little choice but to accept the support offered by their stuffy, authoritarian Uncle Edward. But their mother has other ideas and, defying convention, she chooses to provide her daughters with careers. The girls' drapery business prospers but there is a price to pay for their independence. They have severely compromised their marriageability. Vicky's reckless attempts at romance end in disaster whilst Charlotte, outwardly more...

In four absorbing volumes, Valerie Anand has traced the Whitmead family from before the time of the Magna Carta through the Restoration to the early 1700s. Now, with The Cherished Wives, Anand turns to a more modern heroine in Lucy-Anne Whitmead, a late eighteenth-century bride. Lucy-Anne's parents have arranged for her to marry a distant cousin, George Whitmead, a merchant with the East India Company and a man she hardly knows. Lucy-Anne's great aunt Henrietta offers the anxious young bride a wedding gift far different from the usual trinkets or linens: -I wish you well, my dear, and I wish...