Angela Huth

The West Country in wartime, and the land girls are gathering on the farm of John and Faith Lawrence. Prue, a man-eating hairdresser from Manchester; Ag, a cerebral Cambridge undergraduate; and Stella, a dreamy Surrey girl stunted by love; three very different women, from very different backgrounds, who find themselves thrown together, sharing an attic bedroom and laying the foundations for a friendship that will last a lifetime...

Land Girls

'A delightful memoir' Kate Saunders, The Times 'Fabulous . . . dazzling' Tatler 'Enchanting . . . movingly lyrical' Ysenda Maxtone Graham, Country Life This short volume has turned out to be merely a handful of recollections of well-remembered times and stories - some probably misremembered, too - and a few people who have played a crucial part in my life. And some confessions: I have never before tried to write about my doll phobia, for instance, or about the effect synaesthesia has had over the years. I can only hope that this collection of stories from times past might give some idea of a mostly happy life that has gone, and is going, much too fast. At the age of five Angela Huth decided she would become a writer. Hers was an idiosyncratic childhood. Her parents were known to be a highly glamorous couple: Harold was a famous actor and film director who possessed legendary charm; Bridget was known for her lively sense of humour, fluency in foreign languages and her penchant for giving memorable parties. But in spite of her parents' initial happiness, they parted after the war. Eleven years later they got back together, happily, though each would have a lover for decades. After her education ended prematurely - Bridget didn't believe in university for women - Angela Huth went from reluctant debutante to professional writer, switching from journalism to short stories, novels, plays for television and the stage. Praise for Angela Huth: 'A first-class writer' Sunday Telegraph 'There is a very strong case for Huth replacing Jane Austen on the school syllabus' Sunday Times 'Angela Huth knows her own range and writes within it; she is an excellent exponent of the traditional English social comedy . . . she is in perfect control' Daily Telegraph

A Memoir

Not The Whole Story

Gladwyn Suter a tout pour être heureux. La plus belle épouse, le fils le plus facile, la plus jolie maison dans la plus paisible banlieue de Londres. De bons petits plats et une tête blonde à ébouriffer chaque soir en rentrant du bureau. Les douces séductions du train-train quotidien. Mais on mesure son bonheur une fois qu'on l'a perdu. Un jour qu'il rend visite à sa mère dans la campagne sauvage des Downs, Gladwyn croise au bord de la route une jeune femme victime d'une chute de bicyclette. En la conduisant à l'hôpital, il ment impulsivement sur sa situation, puis s'engouffre dans les mensonges. Après seize années d'un mariage sans zones d'ombre, il se voit faire ce qu'il croyait réservé aux autres : acquérir deux téléphones, échafauder des scénarios rocambolesques, multiplier les voyages d'affaires. Seulement, est-on goujat lorsqu'on aime sincèrement deux femmes à la fois ? A-t-on le droit, alors même qu'on la trompe, d'éprouver de la jalousie à l'égard de sa femme ? De faire miroiter à sa maîtresse de faux espoirs ? Chef d'orchestre, la vie se charge de résoudre les dilemmes : un voisin inquiétant, un cottage isolé, une situation incontrôlable et le triangle amoureux passe du vaudeville au roman noir. Avec ce nouveau roman, l'auteur de Quand rentrent les marins et des Filles de Hallows Farm rallie encore ses sujets favoris : le portrait d'une bourgeoisie anglaise attachée aux traditions et déstabilisée par la modernité, la peinture d'une nature sauvage qui reflète les passions des hommes, l'analyse des tumultes de l'amour.

roman

Mentir n'est pas trahir

Disasters, disappointments, dashed hopes ... Doesn't seem that easy, just to find a good man, love him and be loved back. But I shan't give up trying. The war is over, but life goes on for Land Girls Prue, Stella and Ag. While two of the girls are married, Prue, the incorrigible flirt, has no one and is engaged in a quest for a man to provide her with security and gold taps. A year after the girls leave Hallows Farm, Prue finds just such a man and a marriage that protects her from the hardships of post-war Manchester. But she still hankers for the life she so loved as a Land Girl, though it's hard to get work on the sort of farm that provided unimaginable happiness during the war. The lives of her two old friends, Stella and Ag, have moved on and neither visit her. Additionally Prue finds that her newly wedded state and fresh horizons fail to supply the answers she seeks. Yet, in the puzzling world beyond the fields, Prue, in her indomitable way, open as ever to each chance encounter, remains buoyant, optimistic and quite sure that the life she imagines is just round yet another corner. Praise for Land Girls: 'A first-class writer' Sunday Telegraph 'Riveting ... evocative and entertaining' Daily Mail 'Huth's controlled, eloquent style has been compared to Jane Austen's, but her talent is entirely original' The Times 'Piquant, witty and entertaining' Tatler 'Huth is a master of this sort of novel, steeped in period atmosphere and gentle irony' Daily Telegraph 'A good story, told with wit and a keen observation of detail' Times Literary Supplement

Once a Land Girl

Emily has not yet reached the age of judgment. For her, normality consists of contentment and magic and there is no possibility of change in the seeming happiness of her parents. She loves them both dearly and her image of them is together - invisible, laughing, dancing, making every day scintillate with life. When change does come, Emily is a helpless spectator, confused by the puzzle of ill-fitting events. With both poignant humor and ruthless honesty, Angela Huth has captured the inconsistencies of adult behavior, as seen through the eyes of a child who watches and suffers from them. "Sun Child" is an exceptional adult book about a child's world.

Sun Child

The ghost of a doomed romance haunts an Oxford undergraduate's idyllic summer affair; a tragedy of hopeless love and murderous frustration is played out against the backdrop of a provincial repertory company; passion and hatred flower side by side in suburban back gardens. Angela Huth peoples her stories with elderly ladies living out extraordinary fantasy lives and betrayed wives wreaking subtle revenge, drawing out their secret disappointments and their dreams of glamour. She brings to this exquisite collection all the wry delicacy, subversive wit and keen eye for the drama in the quietest of lives that characterise her acclaimed novels. 'Filled with the crackle of conflict and quietly crazed obsession ... Huth's controlled, elegant style has been compared to Jane Austen's but her talent is entirely original' Penny Parrick, THE TIMES

And Other Stories

Another Kind of Cinderella

A social comedy about the unfairness of the sexual emotions, and how it affects the orthodox patterns of English married life. The two couples in the story have two things in common - a skill in the duplicity that flourishes even in happy marriages, and an invitation to the Farthingoes' ball.

Invitation to the Married Life

Quiet, clever, sensible Virginia Fly, still a virgin at thirty-one, harbors erotic thoughts of an intensity and vividness unimagined by her suburban parents, her unassuming elderly suitor Hans or even her virile American pen-friend of twelve years, Charles Whitmore Oakhampton Jr - Charlie. When Charlie announces that he is, at last, to visit England, it seems too much to hope that he should make Virginia's dreams of passion reality. Yet his arrival coincides with her appearance on a television documentary and suddenly Virginia is presented with a bewildering variety of opportunities to rid herself of her virginity. The only question remaining seems to be whether any of them - even the suave and delicious stranger Ulick Brand - could possibly fulfill her considerable expectations.

Virginia Fly is Drowning

Lisa Rosenbaum

La Seconde Guerre mondiale vient de s'achever. Rentrée à Manchester après son séjour à Hallows Farm en tant que volontaire agricole, Prue rencontre Barry, un homme d'affaires prospère. Elle consent à l'épouser, sachant qu'il lui assurera le confort matériel. Mais son bonheur est de courte durée : elle est livrée à elle-même, et perd à la naissance l'enfant qui donnerait un sens à sa vie. Si la complicité de Johnny, son voisin poète et menuisier, la sauve un peu de la routine, sa seule véritable joie est de revoir Ag et Stella, ses amies de Hallows Farm, et d'évoquer avec elles leurs années de bonheur. Prue a beau savoir que cette époque est révolue, elle en garde une violente nostalgie. Sa séparation d'avec Barry, son amitié pour Ivy, une vieille dame à qui elle tient compagnie, ses amours contrariées n'auront pas raison de son rêve : celui de vivre dans une ferme à l'image de celle de Mr et Mrs Lawrence. Angela Huth entraîne le lecteur au coeur des pensées intimes d'une jeune femme comme dans les magnifiques paysages de la campagne anglaise, avec un souffle romanesque renouvelé.

Souviens-toi de Hallows Farm

First published in 1996, this collection of stories tells of the ghost of a doomed romance haunting an Oxford undergraduate's idyllic summer affair; a tragedy of hopeless love and murderous frustration is played out against the backdrop of a provincial repertory company; passion and hatred flower side by side in suburban back gardens. Angela Huth peoples her stories with elderly ladies living out extraordinary fantasy lives and betrayed wives wreaking subtle revenge, drawing out their secret disappointments and their dreams of glamour; she brings to this exquisite collection all the wry delicacy, subversive wit and keen eye for the drama of the quietest lives that characterise her acclaimed novels.

Another Kind of Cinderella and Other Stories

Nowhere Girl

The Handles, happily married for many years, have reached the point in their lives where easy silence, an acceptance of each other's ways, is the norm. Grace has her painting, and the children's reference book she has long been working on. William has his music and his string quartet, even if his name isn't quite spelled like the great composer. Then Grace encounters a young man, Lucien, who adopts her, haunts her, threatens her - and provides her days with a bittersweet frisson. And William becomes so besotted by his new viola player, he decides to murder his wife ...

Easy Silence

Returning somewhat tipsy from a friends wedding. Alice announces she has met Edward and Laura whom she has invited to dinner. Edward is Alice's old flame and Laura and Tom had a brief pre-marital affair - four ex-lovers meeting after twenty years, where's the harm? But they arrive with Mary with whom Tom had a passionate affair. Will Tom's and Alice's seemingly secure marriage survive the seductive onslaught of Mary who is determined to get Tom?-3 women, 2 men

A Play

The Trouble with Old Lovers

Harry Antlers, a once-successful theatre director, falls obsessively in love with Viola Windrush when she comes to New York for an audition. There follows a wild pursuit, taking him to her Norfolk house and to London, where she is decorating for her uncle. Finally, Harry is driven to desperation.

Wanting

Während ihre Männer auf See sind, teilen Annie und Myrtle in dem schottischen Provinznest Freud und Leid miteinander. Ein Unfall bildet den Wendepunkt ihrer Freundschaft. Vertrauen wird zu Verrat, Liebe schlägt in Hass um.

Roman

Meeresleuchten

South of the Lights weaves the story of Evans and Brenda, lovers in a Midlands village, whose happiest hours are spent in the hayloft of the chicken farm on which she works. They have no other roof under which they can be alone together - until the mysterious, romantic Augusta comes to their aid. Evans' desire to possess Brenda results sometimes in passion, sometimes in violence, but Brenda finds sympathy in the company of the fragile and sweet-natured Lark with whom she shares a flat in the local town. Excelling in the illumination of the surprising facets of people's daily lives, Angela Huth reveals their private hopes, rages, fantasies and despair, with an original and moving blend of humour, imagination and pathos.

South of the Lights

Beautiful Annie Macleoud and plain Myrtle Duns cannot remember a time when they were not the most loving of friends, unflinchingly loyal to each other in the harsh climate of the South fishing village that is their home. When Myrtle embarks upon the great and passionate love affair of her life, beautiful Annie finds only disappointment. Still their friendship survives, until a horrifying accident exposes the secret sadness, jealousy, and betrayal each has hidden over the years. Beautiful Annie Macleoud and plain Myrtle Duns cannot remember a time when they were not the most loving of friends, unflinchingly loyal to each other in the harsh climate of the South fishing village that is their home. When Myrtle embarks upon the great and passionate love affair of her life, beautiful Annie finds only disappointment. Still their friendship survives, until a horrifying accident exposes the secret sadness, jealousy, and betrayal each has hidden over the years.Beautiful Annie Macleoud and plain Myrtle Duns cannot remember a time when they were not the most loving of friends, unflinchingly loyal to each other in the harsh climate of the South fishing village that is their home. When Myrtle embarks upon the great and passionate love affair of her life, beautiful Annie finds only disappointment. Still their friendship survives, until a horrifying accident exposes the secret sadness, jealousy, and betrayal each has hidden over the years.

Wives of the Fishermen

Estranged from her second husband, Jonathan, Clare Lyall is less sure than ever about the role men should play in her life. Her first husband, Richard, was much older than her, and his casual disregard for youth gradually hardened into indifference. And Jonathan, if anything, was too easy - too attentive, too concerned, and just a little too pedantic. So when she meets Joshua Heron at a party, the offbeat Clare isn't exactly thirsting for love. But she is mildly impressed when Joshua stubs his cigarette out on his thumb, and swayed still further by the advice of her new friend, the indomitable Mrs Fox. 'Take a lover,' she says, 'it's better to have a lover when you're young than neurosis when you're old...' Gentle, wistful and wry, Nowhere Girl is a beautifully controlled love story from the Booker Prize winning author of The Elected Member.

Angela Huth

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