Product Description

Penny Vincenzi, Queen of the blockbuster, is back.

What do you do when you lose everything? It was one of the biggest scandals of the 80s. Lloyds. It started with just a few requests for money from various Names. And then the demands got bigger. And bigger. Until thousands of people, some rich, most of them just comfortably off, found their lives ruined, homes gone, relationships wrecked. All because of money. When you do have it, its value isn't that important. When you don't - it's everything. AN ABSOLUTE SCANDAL is the ultimate story of the rise and fall in the fortunes of a group of people - and the scandal whose effects were felt across the board. With devastating results ...

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #323003 in Books
• Published on: 2007-10-04
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 768 pages

Review

Praise for AN ABSOLUTE SCANDAL: 'Buy on a Friday, get home, turn off the phone and emerge on Monday replete with a tale well told. Guilty pleasures? We certainly all have them and this is better than most'

(Daily Express )

'The bonkbuster is definitely on the rise again as fiction gets chunkier and glossier. But despite stiff competition from a new vanguard of younger and arguably hipper writers, there’s one name that continues to reign supreme, Penny Vincenzi'

(Glamour )

'This is a big book and a terrifically entertaining one. It's also highly addictive'

(Telegraph )

About the Author
Since her first novel, OLD SINS, was published in 1989, Penny Vincenzi has written twelve novels, most recently SHEER ABANDON, a massive Sunday Times Number One bestseller in both hardback and paperback. After college she worked as a journalist, writing for The Times, Vogue and Cosmopolitan amongst many others, before turning to fiction. Several years later, over four million copies of Pennys books have been sold worldwide and she is one of the UKs best-loved and most popular authors. Penny Vincenzi is married, with four daughters, and lives in London.

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Customer Reviews

Pure intelligent escapism
I was surpised to read such mixed reviews of this novel. Some of the criticisms I agree with - there are some proof reading errors, and Vincenzi is not at her most convincing when writing dialogue for the supposedly working class characters (that is also true of Jilly Cooper). Part of the fun of reading books like this is you set aside such thoughts and absorb yourself in the lives of the rich and glamorous. I think her characterisation is fantastic on the whole, particularly of women. Almost all of the female main characters in her books are strong, brave, feisty and intelligent. I also thought the Lloyds scandal was a good choice of subject, it really sparked my interest in a way that a dryer book would not have. I now know what 'reinsurance' means, so I have learnt something! Overall although I thought this was her best yet.

Finance Saga
As a huge fan of the Spoils of Time saga by Vincenzi I couldnt wait to start this new book.
The best assessment i can give is it is v good in parts but overall not her best work.
I think one of the problems being the main characters who 'suffer' are all Lloyds names with considerable amounts of wealth therefore the sympathy levels are not too high to start with.Vincenzi does build the story well and halfway through you do indeed have considerable empathy with the main characters and their misfortune.
She has obviously researched Lloyds and the financial world of the eighties with great detail and this certainly shows.
It is a 700 page novel and for the first 500 pages i was hooked , i thought the last third of the novel was overly long and the way some of the plots were concluded slightly dubious and at times unbelievable.
Overall i certainly enjoyed the novel and its vivid portrayal of recent history.As family sagas go its entertaining and informative, however when the main event of the book happens off page (a vincenzi device)it can be frustrating and plot devices are too contrived.
Overall a good holiday read , but maybe 200 pages needlessly too long.

An Absolute Scandal
I totally disagree with the previous reader - I have just finished this book, being virtually unable to put it down. As in her other books, Penny draws you in gradually, her characters become like part of your own family. Yes, it was a long book (and too cumbersome to read in the bath!), but what a read! Slightly disappointed that I have read all the others and now have to wait for a new PV novel!