The Great Fortune

Set in Bucharest during the 'phoney war', Harriet is the new bride of Guy Pringle, a lecturer at the university. Harriet, quiet and perceptive, discovers that considerable adjustment on her part may be needed, for the man she loves lives fiercely, sometimes she suspects, uncritically, through the outer world. The outer world in this case is a city of contrasts and rumours, on edge with wavering loyalties and the tensions of war. The fall of Paris marks the nadir of news from outside, but for the English community, and for Harriet and Guy, it coincides with a drawing together, a consolidation of morale.