The first in the Herries Chronicle saga by Hugh Walpole. The tale of Francis Herries, the "rogue" of the title. A violent and impetuous man, a faithless husband and a capricious father, the Borrowdale valley (his home for 40 years) and his unrequited love for gypsy Mirabell Starr are the two forces which drive him.

An impetuous character, Judith Paris arouses feelings of both tenderness and despair in those around her and excites the passions of two very different the sturdy, affectionate Reuben, her half-cousin; and Georges, a Frenchman, whose wilful nature seems to respond to her own.

It had been the wish of her whole life to flee from all the Herries, but Walter Herries had challenged her, and she had taken up the challenge'. Judith Paris, now middle aged returns to the Lakes to deal with the bitter feud between the two branches of the family. A feud culminating in the construction by one branch of a huge house known as The Fortress, which will dominate the land of the others. But within this conflict the children of the two families have important roles to play.

The fourth and final volume of the Herries Chronicles, described as 'incomparably the best' in The Daily Telegraph is a love story of 'effortless brilliance' (Observer) which starts with the triumph of Judith Paris' hundredth birthday in the 1870's and then moves to the tragic disillusionment of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Set, predominantly, as before, amidst the grandeur of the lake district landscape, it tells the passionate and unforgettable story of Vanessa, Judith's Granddaughter and her n'er-do-well cousin Benjie whom she had sworn in childhood never to betray.

This fifth novel in the Herries Chronicle, set against the background of the turmoil and politics of Elizabethan England, tells the tale of one family's experiences of divided loyalties and thwarted love.

The story of the beautiful and mysterious woman who dominates the Herries chronicle in the early 17th century.