Rosalind Brett

Susan and her brother, Paul, were supremely happy managing Willowfield Farm in Rhodesia . . . until the owner returned. David Forrest believed in ruling with a strong hand; he also believed in keeping women in their proper place, but his idea of what that place should be didn’t coincide with high-spirited Susan’s. When he imported a widowed friend, all fragility without and iron-hard selfishness within, and expected Susan to act as her companion, it was almost too much . . . but Susan had to accept his decision for Paul’s sake. How long could the uneasy situation last without a blow-up of some kind?

Blake Garrard had only married Venetia Lindley to give her the protection of his name and assured her he would make no inconvenient demands. But the brittle bondage of her marriage almost snapped when Venetia found herself falling in love with him.

Elizabeth had taken a post for a year on the coast of Provence in one last attempt to try and trace the sister from whom she had been separated since childhood. It was a very long shot, as all she knew was that Diana was living somewhere in France. But real life is often stranger than fiction, and Elizabeth did indeed find her sister - but found, too, that she was in love with the same man as Elizabeth herself; and that the dice were heavily loaded in her favour. For how could Louis de Sergeron, Comte d'Anelle, ever notice, let alone prefer, a humble English nanny when a beautiful, sophisticated woman of the world was his for the asking? Elizabeth could have borne the situation better had she been able to believe that Diana could make Louis happy - but her new-found sister was proving a disillusionment in every way. Should she go away and leave her a clear field, or stay on in the hope that Louis might come to his senses in time?

It takes a very special type of courage to admit defeat, but Lesley and her father now had to face the inevitable. Two tobacco crops had failed, and reluctantly they must sell up and start again elsewhere. But the buyer of their farm was Fernando del Cuero, chief engineer of the nearby hydroelectric scheme. And Senor del Cuero announced that the valuable mineral, berillium, had been discovered on their land. Lesley was unwilling to profit from an industry that would ruin the beautiful land she loved, and was instinctively antagonistic to the man who had stepped in and taken over their lives. But she found events slipping out of her control. The arrival of Virginia, her elder sister, disturbed her deeply. This glamorous young woman's actions were always self interested. She came to Africa anxious only for what she could take, not what she could give.

When Melanie went out to the romantic tropical island of Mindoa, in the Indian Ocean, she was little more than a schoolgirl, both in years and in lack of experience of life. When she left only eight months later she had become a woman. What was responsible for the change? Partly it was Mindoa itself, exotic and glamorous and utterly unlike anything Melanie had encountered before; perhaps it was the people she met - the small but cosmopolitan white colony, living together but all so different from each other. But most of all it was the masterful Stephen Brent who brought about such a transformation in the quiet English girl - Stephen, between whom and Melanie there was such a gulf of years and worldly experience, yet against whose magnetic attraction she had not a chance to defend herself.

Josie, worn out with doing three people’s work during an epidemic, looked forward to her holiday on Marganeta, a charming island off the Spanish coast. She was going to enjoy a wonderfully lazy two months. No feverish record-searching, no worrying herself silly because patients wouldn’t take care. Just quiet, careless bliss! But she hadn't allowed for various disturbing elements. There was her brother Denis, in worse trouble than usual; her stepmother, with just a hint of claws beneath the velvet; Rick Hedley, feckless, a no-good, yet with an element of attraction; and above all, and the real menace to her peace of mind, there was that dominating, dynamic character, Stuart Mendoza-Cortez Morland.

When the physiotherapist Sally Yorke left the Beckmoor Orthopaedic Home in order to look after a patient at Morocco’s fabulous Hotel Mirador, she found herself with more on her hands than she had expected. Not only did she find her patient, Mike Ritchie, in a defeatist mood, but she found that Mike’s cousin, the owner of the Mirador, the immensely successful Dane Ryland, was an autocratic man with an inclination to run other people’s lives—including Sally’s. Sally herself was not the sort of girl to let anybody run her life, and yet Dane was accustomed always to getting his own way. Who would win?

The conditions under which Clare Meriden agreed to go out to Nigeria with Ross Brennan were unusual, to say the least. Facing an eighteen-month posting to the desolate heart of the country, and admitting his need for the solace of feminine companionship, Ross suggested that Clare should marry him -- on his terms -- and that at the end of the eighteen months they should part, with no regrets on either side. Loving him as she did, Clare accepted, confident that every-thing would work out happily. It was a confidence that was to be shattered from the moment the glamorous Patsy Harriman sent Ross a message to say that her divorce was through, and she was waiting for him . . .

To get a man really out of your system there's nothing like having an affair with someone else", Nick Brandis advised Vanessa when she told him of her broken engagement - and she got the idea that Nick himself was offering to help her forget. Nick had, no doubt, had innumerable successes with women, she considered, and couldn't imagine his line failing with someone as inexperienced as Vanessa Lane. Innocent she might be, but one thing Vanessa was sure of - it would be wise to keep clear of this tall creature with the teak-brown hair and calculating grey eyes. So long as she avoided being alone with him that undeniable magnetism wouldn't be hard to resist. But how long could she avoid him in a place so remote as Bolambo?

Pat Brading had gone out to West Africa partly to be with her father and partly to avoid the situation which was developing between her and her old friend Stephen Holman. She felt it was not fair to Steve's fiancee - and anyway, the prospect of Africa had always fascinated her. It turned out to be everything Pat had always dreamed it would - so much so that, when Steve followed her out there, announcing that his engagement was off and begging her to marry him and return to England, Pat refused. But what was she really clinging to - Africa, or the teak-hard rubber planter Nick Farland, who had always treated her as a kid sister but never as a woman?

Elizabeth had taken a post for a year on the coast of Provence in one last attempt to try and trace the sister from whom she had been separated since childhood. It was a very long shot, as all she knew was that Diana was living somewhere in France. But real life is often stranger than fiction, and Elizabeth did indeed find her sister - but found, too, that she was in love with the same man as Elizabeth herself; and that the dice were heavily loaded in her favour. For how could Louis de Sergeron, Comte d'Anelle, ever notice, let alone prefer, a humble English nanny when a beautiful, sophisticated woman of the world was his for the asking? Elizabeth could have borne the situation better had she been able to believe that Diana could make Louis happy - but her new-found sister was proving a disillusionment in every way. Should she go away and leave her a clear field, or stay on in the hope that Louis might come to his senses in time?

Hoping for some degree of solitude and complete relief from women, Julian Caswell goes as plantation manager to the tropical island of Valeira. When he discovers a lone white girl in his fastness of men he is, not unnaturally, hostile, and Philippa Crane is commanded to leave. But Phil is young and unspoiled and full of pluck; she is also determined to remain on Valeira. She wins the first round against the cold, inflexible Julian, but as the guarded friendship grows her fortunes vary. Julian's experience of women has made him cruel; in spite of his unfailing generosity there is no piercing him. A heart-breaking problem for a girl who is falling in love. Inevitably climate and circumstances take a hand. The story develops against the vivid back-cloth of equatorial Africa: steaming heat and vicious sunshine which too often rouse the worst in human nature. The characters, typical of their environment, are drawn with knowledge and compassion.

Rosalind Brett weaves a tale of passion and frustration in the dense jungle of tropical Africa. Amid heat, rains and fever, ‘Marea’ finds that puppy love is not enough to make a man out of a weak-spined, easy going wastrel. Married to a man she can only despise for his weakness, her code of honour demands that she go not fifty percent of the way, but ninety or even a hundred percent. Even when she learns that he is unfaithful to her, she must carry on, though she now realises she loves another. Loves him with all the passion and devotion of a true and just love. But her mind will not let her admit such a love, not even to herself. Here is a tale of the jungle, the cruel jungle that separates the men from the boys. No place for any woman - or so they think - until Marea shows that anything can be conquered if you just have the will to do so. The heat and humidity does strange things to any woman - Marea is no exception.

Determined to focus on work rather than books, as his father had, twelve-year-old Patrick Waters leaves Belfast as a steward on the Titanic, but the very wealthy Harry Widener arranges to tutor him, drawing Patrick into association with thieves seeking Harry's very rare edition of Francis Bacon's Essays.

For years Maggie’s life at the Pyanga general store had slipped along serenely. Perhaps because she wasn't ready for men, she had admitted no man even to the outer reaches of her heart. Even now, when she was twenty-one, she would have said she was not ready for romantic adventures. But such excitements have a way of catching up with one, and the only way to deal with them is to accept them or throw up a few defences. When Maggie’s parents visited England and left Maggie alone to run the store, a tall, arrogant stranger walked into it - and into Maggie's life. She determined to throw up defences. But could a girl like Maggie withstand a man so experienced and so attractive as Nicholas Heward?

Her aunt's legacy of a cottage on the Costa Brava had some curiously hampering conditions attached to it, Linda thought. In fact, it was really a thinly-disguised attempt to manoeuvre Linda into marrying a Spaniard. Aunt Natalie had even chosen the man, and he was handsome and charming as anyone could wish. Linda's English neighbour had charm too, and the whole situation might have developed into a pleasant, harmless comedy if Maxine had not turned up. For where Maxine went, drama — and even, if she was thwarted in getting her own way, disaster —tended to follow.

Tessa had flown out to Nigeria to attend her cousin Raine's wedding to Edward Grimshaw. She liked Edward and was looking forward to all the fun of planning the wedding -- so she was horrified to find on arrival that Raine was dithering towards being off with her old love, and only deterred by the fact that she was not yet quite on with new, the overwhelming David Calvering. Was it entirely on Edward's account that Tessa found himself hoping that Raine would settle for him after all? An absorbing romance with the magical background of West Africa. Flowers, spicy smells, a black ceiling painted with stars, blue mists in the forest, the thick, warm mysterious river and bright parakeets shrieking among the trees. To all this Tessa flies out from England to attend her cousin Raine's wedding, only to find Raine dithering between her old love and a new one.

When Ann Calvert went to spend a month on a South African farm with Theo Borland and his sister, she expected a pleasant holiday; just that. But she got both less and more than she bargained for. Both Theo and Elva proved to be different from her first idea of them, and there was a totally unexpected element in the person of Storr Peterson -- the most dynamic and disturbing man she had ever met.