Emma Harte

In 1905 a young kitchen maid leaves Fairley Hall. Emma Harte is 16, single and pregnant. By 1968 she is one of the richest women in the world, ruler of a business empire stretching from Yorkshire to the glittering cities of America and the rugged vastness of Australia. But what is the price she has paid? 

Emma Harte is now eighty years old and ready to hand over the reins of the vast business empire she has created. To her favourite grandchild, Paula McGill Fairley, Emma bequeaths her mighty retailing empire with these heartfelt words: ‘I charge you to hold my dream.’ 

Set in Yorkshire, Hong Kong and America, this remarkable novel continues the story of an unorthodox and endlessly fascinating family. As the spirit of Emma Harte lives on in her granddaughter, Paula O’Neill, an engrossing drama is played out in the glamorous arena of the wealthy and privileged, underscored by a cutthroat world of jealousy and treachery. Paula must act with daring and courage to preserve her formidable grandmother’s glittering empire from unscrupulous enemies - so that Emma’s precious dream lives on for the next generation. 

Paula O'Neill, beloved granddaughter of Emma Harte and the guardian of her vast business empire, believes all that Emma left to the family is secure. However, beneath the surface tension is mounting and sibling rivalry brewing. And as the pages unfurl, Paula discovers the secret Emma took to the grave. 

Evan Hughes, Emma's American great-grandaughter, is trying to integrate into the powerful Harte family. She is caught between her estranged parents, her new family, and new love. Meanwhile a dangerous enemy hovers in the background. 

Linnet O'Neill, heir apparent to Emma Harte, is determined to bring the Harte empire into the twenty-first century. But she and her mother Paula, head of the dynasty, lock horns. When Paula falls dangerously ill, Linnet is suddenly alone at the helm, just as her great-grandmother Emma once was. Linnet finds herself following in the footsteps of the original woman of substance as she battles to save what Emma created – upsetting her sister Tessa, who believes herself to be the rightful heir, in the process. When grief and heartbreak strike the family, all of Emma's great-granddaughters are tested to the limit as the extraordinary story of the Harte family takes another astonishing turn.