Ann Bridge

Illyrian Spring

While on an assignment with British Intelligence in Morocco, the widowed Julia Probyn Jamieson, journalist, amateur sleuth and occasional spy, loses her heart to Gerald O'Brien, a kind and unassuming lawyer. Together with her five-year-old son, Julia travels to Gerald's family home in Ireland to see if the country life could be for her. Julia's quiet vacation is interrupted when she stumbles upon a plot by a cunning landowner. It is down to Julia to investigate the devious scheme, which would destroy the wild beauty of the coast and disrupt the peace of the community. Julia in Ireland, is book eight and last in The Julia Probyn Mysteries.

A Julia Probyn Mystery, Book 8

Julia in Ireland

A Novel

Peking Picnic

Feride and Nilüfer lead a elegant and comfortable life in Turkish aristocratic society until their lives are turned upside down by Atatürk's fight for independence after WWI. Finding strength and courage they didn't know they had, the women become pioneers for the freedom of their countrywomen. When their husbands leave to join general Atatürk in the fight for a new Turkey, Feride and Nilüfer dress in disguises and follow them. Through rain and mud and past glittering snowy peaks, the inexperienced women are plunged into hardships they had never dreamed of - living with the roar of Greek guns, fearing the horrors of military disaster. The magnetic Atatürk, having led his forces victoriously against the Greeks, proceeded to cajole and bully his people into trading the fez for hats and adopting a new alphabet. Almost overnight, Atatürk- with the help of courageous women like Feride – turned Turkey into a 20th-century nation. "Absorbing reading...There's color in the rich tapestry of Turkish custom and thought; there are vivid scenes and live characters." - Kirkus

The Dark Moment

Franciful tale about a group of Scottish Highlanders who personify characters of an ancient legend.

And Then You Came

Julia Probyn, like most people, knew very little about anonymous numbered accounts in Swiss Banks. Until her cousin, Colin Munro, asked her to look into the matter of one containing a fortune for his fiancée Aglaia Armitage, left to her by her Greek grandfather. Julia – journalist, amateur sleuth, occasional spy – must learn fast. When the account is compromised, and documents of vital interest to the British Secret Service go missing, it is again down to Julia to foil a Communist plot. In The Numbered Account, book three in The Julia Probyn Mysteries, Ann Bridge brings her characteristic wit, suspense and sense of adventure.

A Julia Probyn Mystery, Book 3

The Numbered Account

Susan Lowndes

Susan Lowndes Marques

Ana Vicente

uma viagem pelo país nos anos 40

Duas inglesas em Portugal

This novel records the lives of a group of English diplomats in Budapest from the Spring of 1940, up to the entry of the Germans which compels them to leave in Easter 1941. Crossing the Russian frontier en route for Moscow and the U.S.A., an episode at once dramatic and distinctly comic, sees the characters' main pre-occupation as less about their own predicament than the desperate and sustained endeavour to send food and clothing to the 44,000 British prisoners-of-war in Germany, during those first months when no Red Cross Parcels from England reached the camps. A touching love-story, a personal tragedy, and a disconcerting glimpse of treachery are skilfully interwoven in this revealing book.

The Tightening String

Portrait of the author's mother, Mary Louise Day, and the Day family.

A Portrait of Her Mother

A Family of Two Worlds

An enthralling novel that evokes a vanished era.

Peking picnic: a novel by Ann Bridge

Enchanter's Nightshade

Ann Bridge takes the little-known country of Albania for her background recreating the primitive grandeur of the country. The Albanian way of life demonstrates a noble standard of values that is rapidly disappearing under the pressure of modern materialism. Our protagonist is an unhappy and disillusioned young widow who travels to Albania as the result of a chance encounter on the Istanbul express. A fellow passenger tells her that there she will find a life that contains something far more satisfying than the restless gaiety of her cosmopolitan clique. Later, living in the feudal household of an Albanian prince, absorbing an atmosphere of immemorial dignity, and enjoying the friendship of two remarkable women – one a mature and cultured English writer, the other a wise old American doctor – she comes to understand what he had meant. And when, for the second time, she is faced with a tragic outcome to hopes of happiness in love, she is able to find solace among the granite heights and singing waters of Albania.

Singing Waters

When Julia Probyn's cousin and childhood friend Colin cuts off all contact with his family, it is down to Julia to find him. Setting sail for Morocco – the last place he was seen – and using her occupation as a journalist as a cover, Julia is ready for a fairly lighthearted quest. But Julia wasn't counting on the level of secrecy surrounding her cousin's disappearance. With the British consulate offering little help, Julia must use her charm and tenacity to follow the clues and unravel the mystery left in Colin's wake. Book one of The Julia Probyn Mysteries, The Lighthearted Quest has Ann Bridge's trademark blend of humour and adventure which transports us to exotic places, but also throws a good deal of light on the explosive political issues that French Morocco encountered in the 50s. 'Here's an answer for the multitude of readers demanding a good story, adventure, mystery [and] romance' -Kirkus

A Julia Probyn Mystery, Book 1

The Lighthearted Quest

Some Literary Recollections

Facts and Fictions

In Enchanter's Nightshade, first published in 1937, Bridge presents her reader with a "period piece" of Italian provincial society and distributes our sympathies over a surprising range of characters, several of whom touch on individual tragedies. The lovely "Enchantress" in the late thirties; the little English governess in the early twenties, full of Oxford enthusiasms; the ardent youth, Giulio; Marietta, that delightful child, puzzling over the problems into which she is plunged by the disaster which overtakes her beloved English instructress; the old Marchesa, whose hundredth birthday looms all through the book; above all perhaps the wise, patient Swiss governess - all these in turn claim our affection or our pity. Ann Bridge shows here an intensity of feeling and a dramatic power which may come as a surprise after the gentle restraint of her earlier books. But for all the characters who are capable of forging happiness for themselves, the doors open, at the end, on possibilities of future contentment.

Ann Bridge

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