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Ed Hartlepool has been living in self-imposed exile for five years, but with a settlement regarding his inheritance looming, he must return to his ancestral seat, Hartlepool Hall. On his return, he discovers that his father has left him, along with the house, a seven million pound tax bill, two massive overdrafts, an 80-year-old butler, and a vast country estate that is creaking at the seams. Not only that, but there is a strange woman in residence – Lady Alice – who seems to have made herself very much at home.
With the debts mounting, it seems that Ed’s only recourse is to turn to his friend Annabel’s new boyfriend, a property developer who plans to turn Hartlepool Hall into luxury flats and a golf course. But can Ed save his inheritance without such a drastic move? And is Lady Alice really the person she claims to be?
Read by Richard Mitchley
(p) 2012 Orion Publishing Group
With the debts mounting, it seems that Ed’s only recourse is to turn to his friend Annabel’s new boyfriend, a property developer who plans to turn Hartlepool Hall into luxury flats and a golf course. But can Ed save his inheritance without such a drastic move? And is Lady Alice really the person she claims to be?
Read by Richard Mitchley
(p) 2012 Orion Publishing Group
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Reviews
It grabs you right from page one and is another great read from the author of SALMON FISHING IN THE YEMEN
It's a novel that should enhance his reputation for excellent, ingenious writing
This is a novel about decay and destruction, but bracingly unsentimental and surprisingly moving
A deliciously dark comedy about class, snobbery and a vanishing way of life
A novel that's quirky, funny, moving and peopled with superbly drawn characters
Gloriously enjoyable
More intriguing is the skein of darkness that, in common with much of Torday's fiction, runs discretely through the story - one sequence is sufficiently macabre as to recall the work of a young McEwan