Joanna Trollope Livres

Rachel a trois fils : Ralph, Edward et Luke. Entièrement dévouée à ses enfants à présent adultes, elle contrôle leur vie avec poigne et conviction. Le jour où une crise éclate dans le mariage de l'un d'eux, elle se frotte aux nouvelles allégeances de ses garçons, désormais époux avant d'être fils, et dont les femmes sont fermement décidées à imposer leurs propres règles. Mais Rachel entend bien prendre les choses en main. Entre elle et ses belles-filles, la guerre ne fait que commencer.

Chrissie a toujours su que Richie les aimait, elle et leurs trois filles, ainsi que leur joyeuse existence rythmée par la musique. Un seul bémol : Richie ne l'a jamais épousée, et pour cause, il n'a jamais divorcé de Margaret, la mère de son premier fils. Quand il meurt brutalement, tout bascule ; Margaret et son fils, qui figurent sur le testament, font une soudaine réapparition. Pour Chrissie et ses filles, tout se fissure irrémédiablement.

Elles sont sueurs et pourtant aussi différentes que le jour et la nuit. Elinor, étudiante en architecture, est discrète, modeste et trop raisonnable. Marianne est impulsive, passionnée et rêve de devenir artiste. Mais un jour, leurs caractères et leurs certitudes sont mis à rude épreuve. Elinor doit-elle rester stoïque quand l'homme qu'elle aime s'abandonne dans les bras d'une autre ? Et il n'est pas sûr que la foi de Marianne en l'amour survive à sa rencontre avec le célibataire le plus séduisant de la région... Au fil de leurs aventures, les deux jeunes femmes apprennent la vie. Et dans un monde où la vie privée est exposée sur Internet, l'amour a bien du mal à triompher du scandale...

The BP Portrait Award, now in its twenty - fourth year, is one of Britain's most prestigious art prizes, and is the leading showcase for artists throughout the world specialising in portraiture. Last year more than 255,000 people visited the exhibition, which is based on the competition open to all artists aged eighteen and over from around the world. The catalogue features sixty works from an international list of artists, which together display a diverse range of styles and painterly techniques. It also includes a fascinating essay by bestselling novelist, Joanna Trollope, and interviews with the prizewinners by Richard McClure give further insight into the artists behind the portraits.

"From the towering Burmese magnificum, with its three-foot-diameter trunk and its masses of sweet-smelling purple flowers, to the potted pink azalea, glowing like a burning bush on the backyard garden patio, Rhododendron is a genus of infinite variety and beauty. There are 1,025 known species: it is a native of the snows of the Himalayas and the swamps of the Carolinas, the jungles of Borneo and the island inlets of Japan. It is also one of the oldest of plants - many believe the dove that returned to Noah's ark was carrying a rhododendron sprig - although it has been known to western horticulture for only 300 years. The curious history of Westerners and rhododendrons is full of swashbuckling plant collectors and visionary gardeners, colonial violence and ecological destruction, stunning botanical successes and bitter business disappointments. And it is here related with consummate skill by Jane Brown, an English garden writer."--BOOK JACKET.

1988--As the rumblings of dissent and racial resentment began to erupt into a savage war between Boer and Briton, so three young men found their lives drawn together. Matthew Paget, son of an archdeacon, was turbulent, rebellious, and longing for excitement. Throwing away all the privileges that could have been his, he enlisted as a trooper--only to find himself loving the beautiful war-torn country of Africa and finally falling in love with a girl on the enemy side. Will Marriott, his cousin, was an officer who believed in England's greatness and the glory of battle. But as his comrades were maimed and killed, as he himself was wounded, and then betrayed by a one-time friend, so his values began to change. The one thing that never changed was his love for Frances, Matthew Paget's sister. Hendon Bashford was an upstart social climber, a swindler and a cheat. Half English, half Boer, he owed allegiance to no one while creating havoc in the lives of more honourable men. As the passage of war unfolded, so the lives of these three young men, and women they loved, moved towards a tumultuous climax.

On the fifteenth of February, 1879, the day on which Queen Supayalat of Mandalay ordered eighty members of of royal family to be clubbed to death, Maria Beresford celebrated her twenty-first birthday. On that day Maria knew nothing of Mandalay, the fairy-tale City of Gems. The selfish, difficult but heart-stoppingly beautiful daughter of a failed tea-planter in India devoted herself to pleasure. But when her father was sent to Burma, and she had to accompany him, she became embroiled in an exotic world of political intrigue. Her friendship with the Queen - a dangerous and unpredictable figure - and her growing closeness to Archie Tennant, a young man who has come east to seek his fortune after the ruin of his family business, brought her both danger and the key to her destiny.