Elizabeth von Arnim

Elizabeth von Arnim creates and immortalises that place so perennially dear to an Englishwoman's heart - her garden. Through her eyes we watch the seasons, each bringing new events as friends and neighbours come and go. There too is her upright Teutonic husband, inspiring in her a mixture of irritation, affection and irreverence.

Four very different women rent the small medieval castle of San Salvatore in Italy to escape February in England and find their lives transformed by the magic of the place.

The discreet advertisement in The Times, addressed 'To Those who Appreciate Wistaria and Sunshine', offers a small medieval castle for rent, above a bay on the Italian Riviera. Four very different women - the dishevelled and downtrodden Mrs Wilkins, the sad, sweet-faced Mrs Arbuthnot, the formidable widow Mrs Fisher and the ravishing socialite Lady Caroline Dester - are drawn to the shores of the Mediterranean that April. As each, in turn, blossoms in the warmth of the Italian spring and finds their spirits stirring, quite unexpected changes occur.

First published in 1929, this is the story of a respectable middle-aged lady, in an equally respectable south London suburb, struggling with the revelation of her long-term extra marital affair. When Millie is suddenly widowed, the whole edifice of her daily life is kicked open wide to the world. Was she wronged or was she dealt her just deserts? Secrets tumble out and sureties are questioned.

Since her mother's death Jennifer has devoted her life to her father, managing the family home and acting as his secretary. After the sudden announcement that he has taken a new wife, Jennifer, at 33, seizes the opportunity to lead an independent life. She secures the lease of Rose Cottage and turns her attention to her own needs and interests. With a humorous tone, this novel explores the familial and societal expectations placed on single women during the interwar years.

Enchanting love affair between a determined young woman and an improverished well-born Englishman;

Ingeborg Bullivant returns from a tour to Lucerne engaged. Her subsequent life as a rural pastor’s wife is just as restrictive as her old one, then a dashing artist appears with tales of wondrous Italy and her wanderlust returns.

When Lucy Entwhistle's father dies suddenly, she is left alone in the world struggling to find her place in life. But on the very same day she happens to meet the recently widowed Everard Wemyss. Their shared grief brings them together as they find in each other someone to talk to and in whom to confide, and Lucy finds a comforting hand to guide and protect her. As Wemyss' control over Lucy strengthens, an engagement seems imminent, only Lucy's aunt seems to apprehend some danger in the unsettling Wemyss. Returning from their honeymoon, Lucy takes up her place as mistress of 'The Willows', the Wemyss family home. But the spectre of Wemyss's first wife seems to hang heavy in the air as Lucy takes over the dead wife's sitting room and marital bed. With Everard's ever increasing controlling behaviour, the claustrophobic atmosphere deepens, and Lucy becomes more obsessed with the mysterious Vera. The oppressive situation threatens to build to crisis level. How did Vera really die? Can Lucy ever be happy at 'The Willows'?