R. F. Delderfield

This bestselling novel that inspired a legendary "Masterpiece Theater" presentation invokes a vivid panorama of English life and history.

To Serve Them All My Days

Long Summer Day (A Horseman Riding by)

"R.F. Delderfield is a born storyteller." ? Sunday Mirror The beloved classic saga from master author R. F. Delderfield, subject of a landmark BBC miniseries. To Serve Them All My Days is the moving saga of David Powlett-Jones, who returns from World War I injured and shell-shocked. He is hired to teach history at Bamfylde School, where he rejects the formal curriculum and teaches the causes and consequences of the Great War. Eventually David earns the respect of his students and many of his fellow teachers, against the backdrop of a country struggling to redefine itself. As David falls in love and finds himself on track to possibly take on the headmaster role, he must search to find the strength to hold true to his beliefs as the specter of another great war looms. To Serve Them All My Days is a brilliant picture of England between the World Wars, as the country comes to terms with the horrors of the Great War and the new forces reshaping the British government and society. Subject of a Landmark BBC Miniseries Includes Bonus Reading Group Guide WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING: "I sometimes still wake up in the morning and look forward to reading more about P.J. and Bamfylde." "From the stationmaster on the first page to the last boy on the last page, these characters all have a very human aspect that connects to you immediately." "This book should be in everyone's library." "This is an ennobling book?it showed a person wounded in body and spirit who found that concentrating on the details of teaching the schoolboys under his care was, in a sense, a healing meditation." "?just the book for a cold rainy day?with a hot cup of tea and a scone." "Mr. Delderfield's manner is easy, modest, heartwarming." Evening Standard "He built an imposing artistic social history that promises to join those of his great forebears in the long, noble line of the English novel. His narratives belong in a tradition that goes back to John Galsworthy and Arnold Bennett." Life Magazine "Sheer, wonderful storytelling." Chicago Tribune "Highly recommended. Combines tension with a splendid sense of atmosphere and vivid characterisation. An excellent read." Sunday Express

1942-1964 Paul and Claire Craddock have grown older in years - but not in spirit. The turbulence of war is followed by a penurious peace. Changes are taking place in the countryside, from the way land is farmed to the hopes and expectations of the men and women who live there. Paul Craddock's livelihood, his peace, and his vision of a good and noble way of life in Shallowford are all threatened. With the help of his children and his children's children, Paul starts to adapt his dreams in order to preserve the farm. To his surprise and pleasure, in doing so he comes to discover deeper, richer ties with those around him - ties that hold a ripe promise for the future. 'Mr Delderfield's manner is easy, modest, heartwarming' - Evening Standard

The Green Gauntlet

Adam Swann is hungry for success. He is one of the new breed of entrepreneurs thrown up by the Industrial Revolution, determined to take advantage of current economic conditions to build an unrivalled business empire. And he is determined to win the beautiful, strong-minded Henrietta, and persuade her to share in his struggles and triumphs.

God is an Englishman

"Fifteen-year-old John Leigh is living with his aunt and uncle in a small Devon village when he meets the girl fated to change his life. From the moment he first sees Diana Gayelorde-Sutton astride a horse, looking as poised and regal as a queen, he falls irrevocably in love. But they are worlds apart: He is a poor Cockney orphan and she is the pampered only daughter of a powerful businessman. They become inseparable, though, and friendship deepens into love. As the 1920s segue into the 1930s, John becomes a small-town newspaperman while Diana travels the world. Yet they always return to each other, until one earth-shattering day. And soon World War II will cast its long shadow over the world, testing their relationship in ways they never imagined. "--Back cover.

Diana

Adam Swann has grown old, and is struggling to keep up with the changing times. The Victorian age is giving way to the Edwardian and the horse is being overtaken by the motorcar, with devastating effect on his transport business. As the new century is born, the Boer war brings tragedy, but even this cannot quench the indomitable spirit of the Swann family.

From one of the best-loved authors of the 20th century

Give Us This Day

Beautiful, resourceful, treacherous, vulnerable. She was a woman full of contradictions and he would never stop loving her. As a young girl Diana is irrepressible, untameable and, to the orphaned John, endlessly fascinating. Only daughter of a wealthy businessman, she is drawn both to a rigorous outdoor life in the west country with her horses and the glittering London society that will be her destiny. They spend a magical unconventional childhood together but Diana's ambition, her passion for life that makes her so desirable, pulls her away from all that makes her happy. The fierce friendship that grew inevitably to love, develops as inevitably to conflict and a betrayal that will mark them both - until the trials of war offers them redemption.

Life didn't stop in the Avenue because the war had started . . . Berni Carver joins up with the Commandos with his twin brother hoping they will serve out the war together. Archie Carver is determined to end the war richer than when it started. Elaine Fraser seizes her opportunity to live a little now her husband is out of the way. War has broken out and the blitz will soon change everything in the Avenue. Many men have gone off to fight but others stay behind with less honourable intentions . . .

The Avenue Goes to War

A Horseman Riding by [complete Series].

It happened on the second day of the summer term. Was it caused by the smell of lilac, the droning of the bees, or the French incense which Lane-Perkins had set alight? Nobody knew, but that spring afternoon following a heated exchange with a pupil, Sebastian Sermon, a forty-nine-year-old schoolmaster, experiences a brainstorm. Dissatisfied with his life, he leaves his job, wife and children, and takes to the road. In the months that follow, Sebastian discovers that excitement and romance are not only for the young. He does things he has never done before and finds that he has talents which no one, least of all himself, had ever suspected . . .

The Spring Madness of Mr Sermon

The second book in R.F. Delderfield's Swann family saga. Adam Swann's expanding business empire now stretches as far north as the Scottish Highlands and as far west as the Dublin Pale. Alex, his elder son, is a professional solder; George is a pioneer of the motor industry and his adopted daughter Deborah works to uncover the terrible injustices facing working-class women. The great edifice of the British Empire is beginning to crumble, and as the gap between prosperity and poverty widens Victorian England can no longer afford to be complacent . . .

Theirs Was the Kingdom

The real motive wasn't love and it wasn't greed . . . It rose to the surface out of a grey pit of boredom. When Charlie Pritchard is shown a way to escape his mundane and monotonous life as a small-town bank clerk in a tiny Welsh resort in the 1920s, and live instead in wealth with beautiful Delphine, he knows that this is his only chance. And he has to take it - even if the plan is to rob his own bank. However, as zero hour approaches he realises that there is far more at stake than he had ever imagined, and that there will be no escape, no escape at all.

A classic heist novel full of 20s nostalgia

Come Home Charlie & Face Them

1912-1940 A generation fallen. A country that will never be the same again. Nowhere in England avoids the searing loss of young men¬†during the First World War and the remote Devon village of Shallowford is no exception. Many never return and the lives of those who do come back are changed forever. Paul Craddock must try to rebuild the estate and, with more difficulty, the bonds broken between the people who belong there. It is a time of huge social change and there are challenges in peace as hard to surmount as those of war. And before they are met, Germany once again threatens the stability of Europe and a way of life so hard won.

R. F. Delderfield

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