Promotional feature with Pan Macmillan
The Duchess is the novel you must slip into your holiday suitcase…
Wherever you're planning to vacay this summer, we've found the hot holiday read you have to pack. All hail The Duchess…
Glam, bold and perfect with a poolside piña colada, The Duchess breaks new ground for billion-selling author Danielle Steel. Although it’s set in 19th century England, The Duchess is fiercely contemporary, with a feisty heroine to boot. It’s the very antithesis of a fluffy romance. Angélique Latham's tale is an inspiring journey of survival, natural justice and sisterhood.
Basically, you’re going to love it.
Angélique starts as a total daddy’s girl, doted on by her father, the Duke of Westerfield. Her French aristocratic mother died when she was young. She’s 18, beautiful, bright and very capably manages the family estate of Belgrave Castle.
But it all starts to go a bit King-Lear-meets-Cinderella when her father dies. Her evil half-brothers, Tristan and Edward, start throwing their weight around.
What Steel explores brilliantly are the murky waters of inheritance. Yes, despite being related to two kings and born the daughter of a Duke, our heroine is banished from the castle. She's even forced into working as a nanny for a repulsive family.
Eventually though, thanks to the secret stash of cash her father managed to bequeath her without her brothers' knowledge, she finds her way to Paris. There, a chance encounter finds Angélique rescuing a young woman from an abusive madam.
Seeing a kindred spirit in her new friend, the two open up a high class brothel that will respect and care for the beautiful women who work there. Like a very unconventional boarding school, Le Boudoir nurtures friendships between its women. It attracts the most powerful men in France. Soon its owner becomes the talk of the town.
As heroines go, Angélique is fearless and refreshingly unpredictable. From the English countryside, to the heart of Paris, and on to New York (spoiler alert!) you'll be high-fiving the Duchess at every twist and turn along the way!
-
From Murders and Ghosts to Film Stars and Literary Fiction—these are the must reads for summerFrom exciting new launches to prize-shortlisted reads, the books to see you through autumn.
-
As a Fashion Director, I See Hundreds of New Collections—These Are the High-Street Drops and Investment Pieces I’d Spend My Money On This WeekYour weekly style guide to the moments I’m loving, bookmarking, and shopping
-
Fragrance Houses Are Becoming Art Galleries—And Bringing the Beauty Counter’s Sense of Community BackAs third spaces disappear, fragrance houses are turning to art, culture and community to give us a reason to linger.
-
The Agenda: The New-Season Cultural ResetThe season is shifting and so is your social calendar. Here’s what’s actually worth your time, money and diary space this September.
-
The Agenda: How to Spend Your Finite Free Time Well This SummerThe most interesting exhibitions, restaurants, books, cultural experiences and weekend escapes worth leaving the house for.
-
9 of Britain's 10 Bestselling Novels Begin With a Dead Woman. I Asked Authors, Literary Experts and a Criminal Behavioural Analyst WhyWomen are crime fiction's biggest readers—but the genre's top stories still overwhelmingly begin with the murder of a woman. I spoke to bestselling authors and literary experts to find out why the "dead girl" refuses to die.
-
Yesteryear Author Caro Claire Burke on Her Writing Process, Silencing Self-Doubt and the Books That Shaped HerHer twisty tradwife thriller is about to be everywhere
-
Revenge Dramas, Body Horror and Illicit Love Affairs —These Are the Scintillating Spring Reads to Have on Your RadarGet ready to read your way through April and May
-
From Heated Rivalry to Hamnet, These Are The Most Popular Recent Book-To-Screen AdaptationsHave you read these?
-
7 Scandalous Books About Women in Hollywood to Read Before the OscarsThink fallen starlets, controversial tell-alls, and sordid scandals from Hollywood’s Golden Age.
-
6 Books That Shaped Marie Claire UK's Editors, in Celebration of World Book DayThe reads that the team loved growing up
