Katharine McMahon

Growing up under the watchful eye of her father, an eccentric chemist, young Emilie Selden is a female scientist--and alchemist--in an eighteenth-century world that dismisses female accomplishment, until an unexpected encounter with the temptations of the outside world lures her away from her home, her work, and her father. Reprint. 25,000 first printing.

A Novel

The Alchemist's Daughter

In 1855 Rosa Barr, a headstrong young woman, travels to the Crimea, against the wishes of her family, determined to work as a nurse. She does not return.Three people have been intimately connected with her. One, her brother, a soldier and adventurer; the second a doctor, traumatized by the war, and harbouring a secret passion, and the third, Mariella, her cousin and childhood friend, who must now uncover the truth about what has happened to the missing nurse.Mariella's epic journey takes her from the domestic quiet of London to the foothills of Italy, and on to the ravaged Russian landscape of the Crimea, where she must discover what has happened to her captivating and mysterious cousin and uncover the secrets of those who loved her..

The Rose of Sebastopol

Haunted by the death of her World War I soldier brother, struggling attorney Evelyn Gifford is astonished to learn that her brother fathered a child with a young nurse, a situation that is complicated by a seemingly impossible case involving a wrongfully convicted veteran. By the author of The Rose of Sebastopol.

The Crimson Rooms

Season of light

Crimson Rooms

From the author of Richard and Judy bestseller, THE ROSE OF SEBASTOPOL. In the 1920s a young female lawyer struggles to forget the death of her brother. Then a woman turns up with his illegitimate child ...

Russia, 1854: the Crimean War grinds on, and as the bitter winter draws near, the battlefield hospitals fill with dying men. In defiance of Florence Nightingale, Rosa Barr - young, headstrong and beautiful - travels to Balaklava, determined to save as many of the wounded as she can. For Mariella Lingwood, Rosa's cousin, the war is contained within the pages of her scrapbook, in her London sewing circle, and in the letters she receives from Henry, her fiancé, a celebrated surgeon who has also volunteered to work within the shadow of the guns. When Henry falls ill and is sent to recuperate in Italy, Mariella impulsively decides she must go to him. But upon their arrival at his lodgings, she and her maid make a heartbreaking discovery: Rosa has disappeared. Following the trail of her elusive and captivating cousin, Mariella's epic journey takes her from the domestic restraint of Victorian London to the ravaged landscape of the Crimea and the tragic city of Sebastopol. As she ventures deeper into the dark heart of the conflict, Mariella's ordered world begins to crumble and she finds she has much to learn about secrecy, faithfulness and love.

Season of Light begins in 1788, in the heady days just before the French revolution, when Paris is fizzing with new ideas about liberty and equality. Asa Ardleigh, the impressionable 19-year-old daughter of a country squire, has traveled to the city with her older sister, Philippa, and Philippa's new husband. In Paris, they are introduced to the literary salon of Madame de Genlis. It is in this salon that Asa meets, and falls in love with, a dashing intellectual and idealist, Didier Paulin. Their affair is curtailed when Asa is forced to return to England, but they continue to write as the storm clouds gather over France and war with England seems imminent. Meanwhile back at home, no one knows of Asa's liaison. Asa's middle sister, Georgina, has met Harry Shackleford, the most eligible man in London that season, and to whom the Ardleigh estate is entailed. After the death of their mother, the Ardleigh girls' father began to drink heavily and now the estate is nearly bankrupt. In Shackleford, Georgina sees not only a fortuitous marriage for her sister, but also the solution to their financial woes. However Asa's accomplishments need some polishing. Georgina therefore employs Madame de Rusigneux, a French Marquise. Asa soon discovers there is more to this woman than meets the eye...

Season of Light

The page-turning sequel to THE CRIMSON ROOMS by the author of bestselling Richard & Judy Book Club pick, THE ROSE OF SEBASTOPOL. London, 1926. Evie Gifford, one of the first female lawyers in Britain, is not a woman who lets convention get in her way. She has left her family home following a devastating love affair, much to her mother's disapproval. London is tense in the days leading up to the General Strike and Evelyn throws herself into two very different cases - one involving a family with links to the unions and the other a rich man who claims not to be the father of his wife's child. Evie is confronting the hardest challenge of her career when she is faced with an unexpected proposal - just as her former lover returns. How can she possibly choose between security with a man she admires and passion for the man who betrayed her?

The Woman in the Picture

Secrets abound in this gripping tale of a young woman cloistered since birth who discovers that knowledge is no subsitute for experience when she choses to follow her heart over science. Raised by her father in near isolation in the English countryside, Emilie Selden is trained as a brilliant natural philosopher and alchemist. In the spring of 1725, during the English Age of Reason, father and daughter embark upon their most daring alchemical experiment to date—attempting to breathe life into dead matter. But when Emilie—against her father’s wishes—experiences the passion of first love, she decides to listen to her heart over her head. Banished to London and plunged headlong into a society that is both glamorous and ruthless, Emilie discovers that for all her extraordinary education she has no insight into the workings of the human heart. When she tries to return to the world of books and study, she instead unravels a shocking secret that sets her on her true journey to enlightenment.

Ioana-Miruna Vasilescu

Trandafirul din Sevastopol

Wielka Brytania, rok 1854. Wojna krymska rozpala wyobraźnię młodych Brytyjczyków, którzy rwą się do walki z nowym wrogiem – Rosją. Gdy nadchodzi zima, a Rosjanie zażarcie bronią się w zmienionym w twierdzę Sewastopolu, wojskowe szpitale zapełniają się chorymi i rannymi. Na Krym ruszają pielęgniarki ochotniczki. Wśród nich jest Rosa Barr – młoda, ambitna i zjawiskowo piękna. Od początku przeciwna wojnie, chce nieść pomoc wszystkim, którzy jej potrzebują. W Londynie zostaje jej kuzynka Mariella Lingwood, pogrążona w marzeniach o Henrym, chirurgu operującym rannych żołnierzy sił sprzymierzonych. Kiedy Mariella dowiaduje się, że Henry zachorował i przebywa we włoskim Narni, wyrusza mu na spotkanie. Stamtąd udaje się na poszukiwania Rosy, o której słuch zaginął. Podróż śladami fascynującej i nieuchwytnej Rosy zawiedzie Mariellę z uporządkowanej wiktoriańskiej Anglii na ogarnięty wojennym chaosem Krym i doprowadzi do romansu z oficerem kawalerii, którego skomplikowana przeszłość wiąże się z jej własną. To, czego się dowie, sprawi, że jej dotychczasowy świat wartości legnie w gruzach, choć jednocześnie pozwoli jej odnaleźć w sobie źródło niespodziewanej siły i namiętności. Róża Sewastopola łączy wyrafinowany romans z tragedią wojny krymskiej. To bardzo mocne zestawienie – Guardian Unlimited To urzekająca i skłaniająca do refleksji powieść, która o całą klasę przewyższa standardy beletrystyki z romansem w tle – Lancashire Evening Post Właśnie taki powinien być każdy dobry romans historyczny – The Good Book Guide Zaczytałam się w tej książce i z wielkim żalem powitałam jej koniec – The Book Bag

Róża Sewastopola

'An epic yet heartbreakingly intimate novel of conflict and betrayal, and of the pain of lost love' Kate Mosse A long-buried secret, a heart-breaking betrayal... Estelle never really knew her mother, Fleur, but is haunted by her legacy. A legendary resistance heroine in the Great War, she had helped Allied soldiers escape from Belgium - and was not alone in paying a terrible price. Christa's father was one of those Fleur saved - but he returned home a ruined man. So, when Estelle arrives on Christa's doorstep hungry for information about her mother, an intense and complex friendship is ignited. In 1939, as conflict grips Europe once more, Estelle follows her mother's destiny. Then Christa discovers that Fleur was betrayed by someone close to her and the truth may destroy them all... 'A beautiful, romantic and touching book. The prose is elegant and evocative and, McMahon's research is scholarly and meticulous' Jonathan Lynn, film director 'Katharine McMahon is a historical novelist who can turn her hand to any period and bring it thrillingly alive. [The Hour of Separation is] very possibly her best and most powerful book so far' Readers Digest 'Tender and painterly...rather beautiful' Irish Times

From the bestselling author of Richard & Judy book club pick, The Rose of Sebastopol

The Hour of Separation

A long-buried secret, a heart-breaking betrayal... Estelle never really knew her mother, Fleur, but is haunted by her legacy. A legendary resistance heroine in the Great War, she had helped Allied soldiers escape from Belgium - and was not alone in paying a terrible price. Christa's father was one of those Fleur saved - but he returned home a ruined man. So, when Estelle arrives on Christa's doorstep hungry for information about her mother, an intense and complex friendship is ignited. In 1939, as conflict grips Europe once more, Estelle follows her mother's destiny. Then Christa discovers that Fleur was betrayed by someone close to her and the truth may destroy them all... 'An epic yet heartbreakingly intimate novel of conflict and betrayal, and of the pain of lost love' Kate Mosse

Katharine McMahon

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