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A Novel
by Elizabeth Wilhide
"The house contains time. Its walls hold stories. Births and deaths, comings and goings, people and events passing through. ... For now, however, it lies suspended in a kind of emptiness, as if it has fallen asleep or someone has put it under a spell. This silence won't last: can't last. Something will have to be done."
When brother and sister Charlie and Ros discover that they have inherited their aunt's grand English country house, they must decide if they should sell it. As they survey the effects of time on the estate's architectural treasures, a narrative spanning two and a half centuries unfolds. We meet those who built the house, lived in it and loved it, worked in it, and those who would subvert it to their own ends. Each chapter is skillfully woven into the others so that the storylines of the upstairs and downstairs characters and their relatives and descendants intertwine to make a rich tapestry. A beautifully written novel full of humor, heart, and poignancy, Ashenden is an evocative portrait of a house that becomes a character as compelling as the people who inhabit it.
"Starred Review. With its top-notch writing, strong character development, and excellent plot, this will be on the ...list of Downton Abbey fans, historical fiction readers, and family saga buffs." - Library Journal
"Engaging....A carefully crafted, touching historical that achieves exactly the right note of rewarding readability." - Kirkus Reviews
"A pleasurably subtle web of connections... a beguilingly effortless read." - Daily Mail (UK)
"An affecting, intelligent debut." - The Guardian (UK)
"We are reminded of Brideshead Revisited...well observed." - Times Literary Supplement (UK)
"Rich and absorbing ... personalities are sharpened by Wilhide's fine ear for dialogue and her wry sense of humor. The novel's real value lies in its detail, the patches of finely embroidered description, and in its subtle observation of behavior and tastes." - Financial Times (UK)
"A panoramic view of family life ... any reader who loves history and houses will enjoy this verbal magic lantern show." - Charlotte Moore, author of Hancox: A House and a Family
"Ashenden is an engrossing debut by one of Britain's leading writers on design and interiors. This book is a sparkling jewel: full of fascinating detail, high drama and sly wit." - Amanda Foreman, author of Georgiana: Duchess of Devonshire and A World on Fire
"I adored this book; I saw it as a sort of love letter to a vanished way of life, and a slice of English history at the same time, tracing as it does the lives of all the people who lived in Ashenden, a beautiful English country house, for over two hundred years. It's very touching and very compelling." - Penny Vincenzi, author of Another Woman
This information about Ashenden was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Elizabeth Wilhide is the author of more than twenty books on interior design, decoration, and architecture and a coauthor and contributor of many more, collaborating with authors such as Terence Conran, Orla Kiely and Tricia Guild. Born in the United States, she has lived in Britain since 1967. She lives with her husband, an architect, and their two children in the East End of London
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