M. J. Farrell

In 1900 Lady Charlotte French-McGrath is mistress of Garonlea, a huge gothic house in Ireland. She rules her household and her family -- husband Ambrose and children Muriel, Enid, Violet, Diana and Desmond -- with a rod of iron. Desmond's marriage to the beautiful, lively Cynthia and, several years later, the onset of the First World War are the two events which finally, and irrevocably, break Lady Charlotte's matriarchal hold. Cynthia enters the Jazz Age and on the surface her life passes in a whirl of fox-hunting, drinking and love-making. But the ghosts of Garonlea are only biding their time: they know the source of their power, a secret handed on from one generation to the next...

The Rising Tide

Molly Keane

Angel, formidable hostess, social charmer and mother par excellence, confidently awaits the return of her little boy from the trials of war. She could not anticipate that the teenager who went away will return a grown man - bronzed and world-weary - a sophisticated American widow on his arm. Nor could she anticpate that her irrepressible daughter Slaney will similarly throw herself into romance (without asking her advice) and even her niece Tiddley will show an unexpected determination in getting on with her life. Faced with domestic insurrection on a grand scale, Angel will have to sharpen her wits to maintain her tyranny.

Treasure Hunt

Silverue -- an enchanting Irish mansion -- is owned by one of the most frightening mothers in fiction -- the indomitable, oppressively girlish Lady Bird. Blessed with wealth and beautiful children she has little to worry about except the passing of the years and the return of her son John's sanity. To help her through the potentially awkward occasion of John's return from the asylum she has enlisted the support of Eliza, a woman she believes to be her confidante. But Eliza has her own secrets and John's homecoming will prove the catalyst for revelations which Lady Bird would much rather leave buried.

Full House

Easter Chevington recounts her childhood at Puppetstown, a large family mansion in Northern Ireland, before the threat of violence forced her and her cousins to move to England

Mad Puppetstown

Miss Iris Aroon St. Charles's recollections of her shy, awkward youth among the elegant Irish country gentry early in the century gradually reveal a barbaric strain, a faint but insistent aroma of cruelty, and the ruling delusion of her life

Good Behaviour

George Playfair, an Irish gentleman, tries to save Jane from her destructive relationship with Jessica, who is cruelly possessive

M. J. Farrell

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