Anne Worboys

What does a girl do when, running away on the eve of her marriage, she finds a devastatingly handsome man in possession of the villa she has been loaned as a hideout where she can lick her wounds? Greg Strathallan is rich and notorious - and may be implicated in his wife's death - but he is kind, and Julie is desperately in need of kindness. She knows her family have engineered her marriage, but not why. She is shocked to discover they knew Martin was still involved with his ex-fiance, who has no intention of letting him go. Why would they want Julie to proceed with the wedding? Was she, in walking out, the cause of her father's heart attack? Or was the culprit Martin's father, spreading his tentacles octopus-like into the heart of her father's failing hotels? Young and inexperienced though she is, Julie battles to save the business. But the bankers do not trust her. Her father is too ill to hand over authority. Martin's father sits in the shadows, waiting to pounce. And Martin, playing his own little games, still wants her for the inheritance she is bound, eventually, to provide . . .

"We're not like everyone else," Charlotte cried. "We're twins. Twins aren't like ones." Claire Godfrey's tragic death by drowning at the age of ten devastates her family. Robert blames his wife Vivien for the accident, but not as much as she blames herself; Yolande and Ken, the elder children, are left to deal with theit grief themselves. But despite the sheltering love and sympathy of her godmother Sylvia, it is Charlotte who has the heaviest burden to bear, facing life as half a twin. Seemingly Charlotte adapts as well as can be expected. Only, she refuses to sing any more, stubbornly withholding the beautiful voice she shared with Claire. And mysterious accidents appear to dog her footsteps, alarming, even life-threatening mishaps. But still, no one could ever possibly suspect the secret that Charlotte and Claire keep between them: that nothing and no one can ever truly separate twins, not even death...

Beautiful, impressionable young Hellen North meets Oliver Marathon when he is on holiday. Blessed with looks, determination, and a family background so illustrious that it has smoothed his way into the upper echelons of British Government Service in colonial Hong Kong in 1920, Oliver sweeps Hellen away with a marriage proposal. They ignore the whispers and warnings of people who say that a simple farm girl is not an acceptable Marathon bride, and plan to marry in Hong Kong. So when Oliver is summoned back East peremptorily, he asks Hellen to follow. But her courage falters during the long voyage. The more she learns about Oliver's family, the more she despairs of being accepted. In this vulnerable state she meets George Curtain, a man with a dubious reputation, but just enough gentlemanly behavior to fool Hellen. He lures her ashore in Singapore and entangles her in a cruel trap. Finding Oliver seems an impossibility as Hellen makes her way in a world of passion and intrigue, where anything can happen.

Sara Tindall seems among the most fortunate of people; she's beautiful, in love, has a baby she adores and her name will soon be in lights above one of London's West End theatres. But in fact, her life is darkened by a terrible shadow, the hatred of someone whose identity remains a mystery; someone who has pursued her, year after year, with lies, rumours and threats, whose inexplicable, corrosive loathing cannot be appeased even by murder. Deep in Sara's subconscious mind lies the key to unlock the mystery.

Alice was expensively educated, but disappoints everyone by choosing to trek round the world, keeping the company of lame ducks. When she decides to marry Chris Warren, who owns a fast car and a beautiful house, Alice's mother breathes a sigh of relief. However, although Alice professes to love Chris, it transpires she knew when she married him that all was not well. Her friends and family can only watch helplessly while she ferrets into his past, risking her life, until she herself forces the tragic climax.

With only a name and address as clues, Victoria Brown went to England seeking the details of her birth. Her mother had somehow been involved with the ancient and distinguished Barrancourt family of Alconleigh Manor - but how - as the wife of the estate's gardener - or as mistress to one of its lords? The Barrancourts' legacy of greed and violence became apparent to Victoria as she witnessed their ruthless actions. But there was one man among them who was different - perhaps the only Barrancourt who was capable of love. As Victoria's prying delved deeper into the secrets of Alconleigh, it became clear that someone wanted to end her investigation - at any cost. Very soon she would have to decide which Barrancourt to entrust with her life... and the wrong choice could prove to be fatal.

Huey Long (1893-1935) was one of the most extraordinary American politicians, simultaneously cursed as a dictator and applauded as a benefactor of the masses. A product of the poor north Louisiana hills, he began his political career by taking on, from the office of the Railroad Commission, the biggest corporations in the state, including the Standard Oil Company. He was elected governor of Louisiana in 1928, and proceeded to subjugate the powerful state political hierarchy after narrowly defeating an impeachment attempt. The only Southern popular leader who truly delivered on his promises, he increased the miles of paved roads and number of bridges in Louisiana tenfold and established free night schools and state hospitals, meeting the huge costs by taxing corporations and issuing bonds. Soon Long had become the absolute ruler of the state, in the process lifting Louisiana from near feudalism into the modern world almost overnight, and inspiring poor whites of the South to a vision of a better life. As Louisiana Senator and one of Roosevelt's most vociferous critics, "The Kingfish," as he called himself, gained a nationwide following, forcing Roosevelt to turn his New Deal significantly to the left. But before he could progress farther, he was assassinated in Baton Rouge in 1935. Long's ultimate ambition, of course, was the presidency, and it was doubtless with this goal in mind that he wrote this spirited and fascinating account of his life, an autobiography every bit as daring and controversial as was The Kingfish himself.

Gillian St. Just, vacationing with her handsome new friend Jamie Craven on a yacht off the coast of Sicily, soon realized she had become involved in a dangerous Mafia kidnapping plot which threatened to implicate herself as well as her fellow passengers. The idea of touring southern Italy on a yacht, the Petrel, in the fascinating company of the young man she was just starting to get to know was an intriguing one, but even before the boat set sail, Gill discovered there were things about Jamie she ought to have learned on dry land. A bombing, a prowling stranger, an erroneous passport and a wrecked ship, the Tamarisk, still haunted by the ghosts of a young couple who had gone down with it, are all keys to Gillian's mystery. She herself has a secret which she has vowed to keep from Jamie and the others on board, and it is not until the Mafia vendetta involving the Tamarisk's dead skipper turns on her that she is forced to rely on the strange young man whom she calls Jamie Craven. By the time Gill has connected the pieces of the puzzle, it is almost too late to halt the frightening sequence of events about to befall her. The kidnapping plot she has promised to implement nearly costs her her life, and the ghosts of the Tamarisk seem to hover expectantly as Gill carries out the errand she is determined to complete. Her fear of the Sicilian vendetta drives her on, and the surprising climax of this compelling mystery is a tribute to the plucky and indomitable heroine's intelligence and bravery. THE WAY OF THE TAMARISK is an unforgettable thriller.

Two hundred thousand pounds! That is the amount of the legacy Gerald Fleece left to his step-daughter Lizette, but there are strings attached to the bequest. Her stepfather's family, sheep farmers in far-off New Zealand, have three sons, and if Lizette is to inherit she must marry one of them. Swallowing her pride for the sake of her aged, dependent aunts, she sails alone for New Zealand, hoping for some way out, but of the three sons, Colin is too young, Miles is unhappily married, and Hal is in love with the beautiful, ruthless Barbara, who has long seen herself as mistress of the family's vast and beautiful sheep station. The drama of loyalties, loneliness, bitterness and suspicion is played out against the vivid background of the sheep-dotted New Zealand countryside which the author knows well, for though the characters and story are imaginary, she herself spent her childhood on the sheep station she has called Waimanai. She now lives in England and writes also under her married name, Anne Eyre Worboys.

Chessie had never really been on good terms with her brother Gavin, who had emigrated to New Zealand some years before. But when his wife died she realised that she must go to him, to help him look after his children. What she found alarmed her. Gavin's graceless existence and his meanness had alienated him from the other farmers and Chcssie's only reward was the affection shown to her by the children. Little did she realise that they were to become the millstones round her neck, halting her for long enough to look around and see what she had been unable to see before... .

Claire Richardson travels to Spain in search of her mother who had abandoned her in babyhood for Manuel Manzales. First she meets Ricardo, Manuel's handsome, enigmatic brother to whom she is instantly attracted but who is shackled by the feuds and passions of past generations. Resentful of the rigid Spanish code and suffocated by the constricting influence of a family to which she feels she owes no allegiance, Claire finds herself, by an ugly twist of fate, being asked to surrender her future for a mother who has already impoverished her past.

Virginia Sanderson realizes she is being followed when she arrives on the Greek isle of Mykonos in search of her twin sister and is soon caught up in a plot involving an international smuggling ring and murder.

When her father and stepmother, Antonia, are killed in a road accident, part of Suzanne Cole's legacy is a mystery which has its roots in the aftermath of the bloody Spanish Civil War over twenty years ago. Antonia, she learned, had been married briefly to Carlos, the heir to the de Merito title and the magnificent castle El Regalo del Rey. But then Carlos, the idealistic revolutionary, disappeared and Antonia, wanting the best for their small son, left the child with the de Merito family and returned to England, assuming her husband had been killed. When Suzanne first arrives in Toledo, the chances of solving the mystery of Antonia's past seem remote, but as suspicions and dangers close in on her, she realizes that not only does the austere Count de Merito have something to hide, but that someone is prepared to go to any lengths to prevent her from finding Antonia's son. EVERY MAN A KING is a compelling romantic thriller, set against the backdrop of the rugged Sierra Nevadas in the last years of the Franco regime.

She was a chosen child, her adoptive parents said, and more dearly loved because of that. It should have been enough, but Julia had an obsessive need to know the story that had been enacted on the other side of that hospital crib from which they had taken her, despite the advice of the family doctor and the vicar to leave well alone. ‘You're crazy,’ Nicholas, the boy-friend, told Julia bluntly. 'You will hate your mother for giving you away, and she will hate you for turning up and spilling the beans to an unsuspecting family.' However, like many another unreasoned and deeply felt desire, Julie's obsession drove her away from security and familiar things on a long pilgrimage. Vicky Maxwell has deftly woven a poignant and moving tale of what ensued when Julia walked in on a woman who, without forgetting, had nonetheless learned to live without her.

In the eye of the public, handsome Gilbert Crofting is an eminent and respected lawyer. In private, he is a worried widower saddled with the responsibility of three irrepressible daughters and his aged, unpredictable aunt. His new wife, Mummy-Jo to the girls, has packed her bags and quietly left. 'Why?' wails Victoria, who finds herself reluctantly in charge. 'Perhaps we took her too much for granted,' suggests Camilla. 'Perhaps she wanted to be treated like a bride.' 'A bride!' echoes the schoolgirl Deborah, embarrassed and astonished. 'Fa with a bride! Old men don't have brides!' A Wind from the Hill is the story of how the Crofting family, with the help and hindrance of Aunt Belle, aged minx and fairy godmother by turn, battle for their individual rights and for the rights of the young men next door with whom Camilla and Victoria are in love. These two, bitter enemies tangled in a legal complication that leaves one unfairly penniless, the other undeservedly rich, are drawn uncomfortably together by the sisterly devotion of Camilla and Victoria, and set at odds by Gilbert's acceptance of one and disapproval of the other.

A Mediterranean island... lazy, indolent days of sun and sea... Virginia thought it a longed for haven, a place to hide. But fate is not so easily cheated. For Peter Lesley was there – the man she had first met five years ago at her sister's wedding and found so arrogant. Now at last they could be friends. Why then, was Virginia still on her guard against his particular brand of charm?