Best Seller

The Secret Rooms

Name: The Secret Rooms
Price: 24.00 USD
Availability: InStock
Author: Catherine Bailey
ISBN: 9780143124733

Paperback $24.00

Published on Dec 31, 2013 | 512 Pages

Buy from Other Retailers:

$24.00

Published on Dec 31, 2013 | 512 Pages

Buy from Other Retailers:

For fans of Downton Abbey, this New York Times bestseller is the enthralling true story of family secrets and aristocratic intrigue in the days before WWI

After the Ninth Duke of Rutland, one of the wealthiest men in Britain, died alone in a cramped room in the servants’ quarters of Belvoir Castle on April 21, 1940, his son and heir ordered the room, which contained the Rutland family archives, sealed. Sixty years later, Catherine Bailey became the first historian given access. What she discovered was a mystery: The Duke had painstakingly erased three periods of his life from all family records—but why? As Bailey uncovers the answers, she also provides an intimate portrait of the very top of British society in the turbulent days leading up to World War I.

“In pages more reminiscent of Edgar Allan Poe than Evelyn Waugh… [Bailey] reminds us why this seemingly insignificant story bears telling.” – The New York Times Book Review

“With gripping detail and graceful prose…Bailey’s work can best be described as a work of probative history written with the storytelling skills of a latter-day Agatha Christie.” – The Richmond Times-Dispatch

“Populated with a bevy of real-life aristos who played by their own twisted and privileged set of rules, a searing portrait of family intrigue, dysfunction, and hubris—a la Downton Abbey—emerges.” – Booklist

“Bailey is a truly dogged detective… a compelling exposé” – Kirkus Reviews

“Bailey deserves commendation for her meticulous research as well as her storytelling.” – Publisher’s Weekly

“Gripping. Reads like the best kind of mystery story. It is a tale of mistresses and heirlooms, cowardice and connivance.” – The Sunday Times (London)

“Compelling. A remarkable piece of research which throws a bright shaft of light on powerful people, hypocrisy and the First World War.” – The Guardian

Author

Catherine Bailey

ROBIN PETRAVIC and CATHERINE BAILEY are the co-owners of Heath Ceramics, the iconic tableware and tile company founded by Edith and Brian Heath in 1948. Prior to taking the reins at Heath in 2003, each honed their skills and passion for making things—Petravic in product design engineering and Bailey in industrial design. Together, they bring their creative talents to Heath, honoring the company’s long history and unique relationship between craft and production—efforts that landed them the 2015 Cooper Hewitt National Design Award. Petravic and Bailey live in Sausalito, California, with their son, Jasper, and their two enormous Newfoundlands, Carlo and Oliver.

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The Secret Rooms

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By Catherine Bailey