Margaret Clifton

Nothing is known about the statue on the village green until the arrival of a strange letter;

Like a dandelion seed adrift on the wayward winds, Marcelle de la Strange is an innocent in the decadent and dangerous London of James I.

When wealthy barrister Vanessa Broxton returns home unexpectedly early she finds her children’s temporary nanny murdered. Inspector Thanet suspects her estranged husband but gradually more suspects emerge.

George Felse investigates the murder of a Nazi land-worker in an English village just after the Second World War. His son discovers a clue to the killer’s identity and thus puts his own life in danger.

Harriet and David Lovatt want only a faithful and loving family life. Children fill their lives and re-united relatives surround their table at Christmas and Easter. Then comes the fifth pregnancy and life turns sour as the baby develops violently, his alien presence wrecking their lives.

A summer holiday in France for an English family of five children is not the happy time they had expected… and what is the mystery about Mr Elliott?

Clara and Bosie hoped Noel was right. But they all found the big, strange, isolated house and the grandparents they'd never met before rather daunting. And when David turned up and claimed he belonged there too, things got even more disturbing. There were too many secrets...

It is 1940 and Elizabeth Cartwright finds her life turned upside-down by her growing friendship with a group of young fighter-pilots, engaged in the desperate struggle to protect England from Nazi invasion.

The flag that is shown, literally and metaphorically, by these characters is always the Union Jack. Gardam's stories are acutely observed social commentaries on Englishness, its weaknesses and its illusions.

When Yaxley's cat returns to his cottage to find his missing master, the villagers fear that a secret will come to light.