Jenny Agutter

When Charlotte Brontë died she left an unfinished novel, later published as Emma. Now Clare Boylan has expanded on the original and written a powerful, melodramatic novel about Emma Brown and her life. Some explicit sexual content.

This is the story of Cassandra Mortmain and her unconventional family, who live in an old English castle. Here she strives, over six months, to hone her writing skills by recording in her three notebooks a journal of the changes that take place within the castle's walls, and her first descent to love.

When Father is taken away unexpectedly, Roberta, Peter, Phyllis and their mother have to leave their comfortable life in London to go and live in a small cottage in the country. The children seek solace in the nearby railway station, and make friends with Perks the Porter and the Station Master himself. Each day, Roberta, Peter and Phyllis run down the field to the railway track and wave at the passing London train, sending their love to Father. Little do they know that the kindly old gentleman passenger who waves back holds the key to their father's disappearance.

Vilda Winter has created many outlandish stories of herself, all invented. Now she is old she wants to tell the truth about her extraordinary life. Her biographer, Margaret, succumbs to the power of Vilda’s storytelling but does not believe her. As Margaret begins her research, two stories unfold.