Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #20995 in Books
• Published on: 2007-03-05
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 784 pages

The Times
`The storyteller of substance.'

Synopsis
The Ravenscar Dynasty, introducing the house of DeRavenel, launches Barbara Taylor Bradford's epic new series spanning a century. Ravenscar: A house, a legacy and a dynasty. On a bitterly cold day in 1904, the DeRavenel family's future changes for ever. When Cecily DeRavenel tells her 18-year-old son Edward of the death of his father, brother and cousins in a fire, a part of him dies as well. Edward is comforted by his cousin Neville Watkins, who is suspicious of the deaths. The two men vow to seek the truth, avenge the deaths and take control of the business empire usurped from Edward's great uncle sixty years before. And so begins an epic saga about an astonishing family, set in extraordinary times. Handsome, charismatic and a notorious womaniser, Edward battles his cousin, Henry Grant, for control of the family empire. Elizabeth Wyland, a young widow and a great beauty, stands by his side, and they are secretly married. She is power hungry, and ambitious. But Edward also has a mistress: Jane Shaw, a constant in his life. And as Elizabeth's jealousy damages their marriage, Edward's only solace is his work and Jane.

Edward's position as the glamorous head of the DeRavenels is fatally rocked when betrayal comes from within. Soon, catastrophe threatens to destroy the family and the business!Power and money, passion and adultery, ambition and treachery -- all illuminate a dramatic saga set against the backdrop of the Edwardian Era and the Belle Epoque, just before the First World War.

About the Author
Barbara Taylor Bradford was born in Leeds, and by the age of twenty was an
editor and columnist on Fleet Street. Her first novel, A Woman of
Substance, became an enduring bestseller and was followed by twenty others,
most recently Just Rewards. Her books have sold more than seventy-five
million copies worldwide in more than ninety countries and forty languages,
and ten mini-series and television movies have been made of her books. She
lives in New York City with her husband, television produces Robert
Bradford.

Customer Reviews

Touch of Yorkshire
I loved Ned, and I loved the plot. I suppose because I am from Yorkshire maybe it helped, but I haven't read Barbara Taylor Bradford books recently, but I am looking forward to the sequel. I would have liked to have seen a bit more of the modern day 'war of the roses'within the plot, but I am hoping to see more of this aspect in the next book. I have stood on the Cliff edge and looked out to the cold North Sea as described in the book, I like to see Barbara continues to include her County of birth within her books.

I could not put the book down - excellent read.

What a great read
I really enjoyed this book. I felt that it flowed wonderfully whilst holding your attention at the same time.

I really like Ned and I thought it was nice to see some of the not so nice people get what they deserve. No doubt as this is fiction and also a trilogy more will be heard from the otherside as it were in the next book, which I look forward to reading soon.

Oh, No, No. No. No, Barbara
Well, don't really know what to say except that it was obvious from the first few pages that this book is based on Edward 4th. and his life including his beautiful but terrible wife, Elizabeth Woodville. Well, that's OK as it goes I suppose - Barbara used names which are virtually the same as the historical characters BUT it did just not ring true.
Everyone is either extremely handsome and beautiful and all places are extremely sumptuous - not real at all.
All in all, I found the book rather shallow. I don't think this metier suits her style of writing at all and hope she goes back to her usual genre.
I won't be bothering to read the sequel as I feel that I am not interested in anybody in the Derevenel family and its adherents and to me this means that this is NOT a good book.