Valerie Anand

Crown of Roses

Put to work on the farm of Dane Eric Olafson after his defeat in the Gildenford Massacre, Sir Ivon de Clairpont, the great Norman knight, settles into a life of servitude but refuses to forget his freedom.

The Proud Villeins

In fifteenth-century England, Richard Lanyon, who had sacrificed the happiness of his own family to become a landowner, finds he can no longer live with the guilt of his past, while his son, agreeing to an arranged marriage, harbors his own broken heart, lost dreams, and unspoken secrets. 100,000 first printing.

The House of Lanyon

When their businessman father dies suddenly, leaving his affairs in disarray and his family in dire financial straits, it seems that sisters Charlotte and Victoria have little choice but to accept the support offered by their stuffy, authoritarian Uncle Edward. But their mother has other ideas and, defying convention, she chooses to provide her daughters with careers. The girls' drapery business prospers but there is a price to pay for their independence. They have severely compromised their marriageability. Vicky's reckless attempts at romance end in disaster whilst Charlotte, outwardly more content with her lot, suffers behind the walls of her self-control, silently repressing her need for a man's love and enduring the fact that although she would have loved to have a child, she never will. But the twentieth century brings changes and, by an ironic twist of fate, Charlotte and Vicky find themselves guardians of their great-niece Paula, the granddaughter of a long-dead airman around whom Charlotte had, long ago, built groundless dreams. Like her grandfather, Paula is fascinated by flying and unlike her great-aunt, her romance with an airman blossoms and results in marriage. But when tragedy threatens from an unexpected quarter it is to her great-aunts that she turns—to Vicky for comfort but to Charlotte for the strength to go on into the future, and Charlotte, though she is now on the eve of her hundredth birthday, does not fail her. A moving, deeply felt novel, THE DOWERLESS SISTERS is an unforgettable chronicle of a life lived through a century of enormous change. THE DOWERLESS SISTERS is the final book in this epic series. The Dowerless Sisters An unforgettable chronicle of a century of change

The Dowerless Sisters

To William Rufus’ corrupt and opulent court comes the young Norman Ralph des Aix – Eager to win his knight’s fee from the new English king. But although fortune – and King Rufus – seems to smile on him, Ralph rapidly discovers that to be King’s favourite is bewildering – and not always pleasant. And many feel that the rundown holding of Chenna’s Tun, deep in the heart of the New Forest, is a poor reward for his services. In the remote heart of the great wood, Ralph and his passionate young wife, Sybil of Fallowdene, are relentlessly drawn into the growing conflict between the greedy sophistication of the Norman court and the dark world of the Saxon forest with all its hidden rites. A net of danger closes round Ralph, Sybil and the glittering, lonely figure of King Rufus. And to be truly lord of his own manor, Ralph learns that he must bear the ancient title, King of the Wood, with all its mysterious and barbaric responsibilities…

Spellbinding storytelling in the rich tradition of Marion Zimmer Bradley’s THE MISTS OF AVALON

King of the Wood

This richly and authentically detailed chronicle of the establishment of the rule of William the Conqueror over England traces the struggles of the English people to choose between fealty to the Norman and rebellion

The Disputed Crown

Based on the lives of Earl Godwin of Wessex and his family.

Gildenford

Fiona Buckley

The Ruthless Yeomen

Like many young women in fifteenth- century England, Susannah Whitmead is sent away from home to be educated. Born of yeomen, Susannah's mother wants her only daughter to be raised a lady. But Susannah, who finds life at Hurleigh House to be horribly regulated, longs for home. One of her few comforts is a keepsake, a small badge with a curious design consisting of curved lines arching over wavy ones like a stylized bridge across a river. She is not sure of the badge's origins, but keeps it close to her as a link to her family. Susannah is married off to Sir James Weston of Ashdon manor. Although she doesn't love him, he is kind, and she falls in love instead with his house—a house she will fight to keep through the war, death, and treachery that surround her. Valerie Anand continues the intri­cate weave of history, politics, and passion in Women of Ashdon, the third novel in the acclaimed Bridges Over Time series. “Valerie Anand has been building a remarkable body of work, a series of historical novels that have recreated England’s history both accurately and vividly.” —The Anniston Star

Women of Ashdon 

WEST of SUNSET is the compelling saga of three families who come to England to start a new life and their struggle to accept—and be accepted by—an alien culture. Mohan Lal Bhatia and his wife Leela arrive first, Hindus who mean to bring Indian fabrics to the English but soon find themselves enclosed in the growing Indian community in west London. Thev see no need for integration with the English around them, and will not be compelled to face that challenge until the next generation. Kartar Singh Virk and his wife Nita want to participate more fully in English life, while upholding the proud values of their Sikh community back in India. Neither Nita nor Kartar realize what impossible ideals they have created for their daughters—until it is too late. It is Kartar's brother Perry and Mohan Lal's sister Shanti who find the chal­lenges the hardest. To the problems of a mixed Sikh-Hindu marriage, they must add the conflicts between a husband who wishes he were more English and a wife who wants to cling to the old ways—even when these mean submission to her unreasonable mother-in-law. Yet in the end, their family in some ways adapts to England best. As we follow all three families from the drab 1950s through three decades of hope, heartache and passion, we see their successes, their failures, their fears and dreams, their conflicts and compromises. Above all, we see how three generations of women face the challenges of a world where the old ways are no longer enough, and a new way has not yet been found.

Valerie Anand

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