Part of Series
“You are a very lucky young woman!” demure but beautiful Donela Colwyn’s stepfather tells her condescendingly and then announces that she is to marry his friend, who he is so impressed with, the wealthy and influential Lord Waltingham. But Donela feels anything but lucky at the appalling prospect of wedding a man old enough to be her father and who she has only met once. Desperate to escape she flees by stagecoach, little caring to where it is heading. And once aboard she meets the exotic Supper Club performers Basil Banks and his Three Belles, who are en route to perform at an aristocratic stag party in one of the country’s most celebrated stately houses. Ignorant of the world beyond her stepfather’s stables and her Florence Finishing school, Donela knows nothing of the ‘poses plastiques’ in which young women perform all but naked. Or of what coarse men expect of such girls. So when she agrees to stand in for one of the Belles, who has been taken ill so that she cannot perform, she is appalled by the audience’s behaviour and afraid of the host, the dashing and seemingly overwhelming Earl of Huntingford. Alone, terrified and penniless, Donela has lost everything she holds dear, but little does she know that she is also about to lose her heart.
Author
Dame Mary Barbara Hamilton Cartland was a English writer, during her long career, she wrote over 700 books, making her one of the most prolific authors of the 20th century. She sold over 1,000 million copies throughout the world, earning her a place in the Guinness Book of Records. The world's most famous romantic novelist, she also wrote autobiographies, biographies, health and cookery books, and stage plays and recorded an album of love songs. She was often billed as the Queen of Romance, and became one of the United Kingdom's most popular media personalities, appearing often at public events and on television, dressed in her trademark pink and discoursing on love, health and social issues. She started her writing career as a gossip columnist for the Daily Express. She published her first novel, Jigsaw, a society thriller, in 1923. It was a bestseller. She went on to write myriad novels and earn legions of fans, she also wrote under her married name Barbara McCorquodale. Some of her books were made into films. Ever the romantic, during WWII, she served as the Chief Lady Welfare Officer in Bedfordshire. She gathered as many wedding dresses as she could so that service brides would have a white gown to wear on their wedding day. She also campaigns for the rights of Gypsies, midwives and nurses. Barbara Cartland McCorquodale passed away on 21 May 2000, with 160 still unpublished manuscripts, that are being published posthumously.
