ORLANDO KING

The Times: 'The masterpiece of one of the most important and overlooked British women writers of the twentieth century, with a new introduction'. Orlando King is a trilogy about a beautiful young man, raised in a remote and eccentric wilderness, arriving in 1930s London and setting the world of politics ablaze. In a time of bread riots and hunger marches, with the spectre of Fascism casting an ever-lengthening shadow over Europe, Orlando glidingly cuts a swathe through the thickets of business, the corridors of power, the pleasure gardens of the Cliveden set, acquiring wealth, adulation, a beautiful wife, and a seat in Parliament. But the advent of war brings with it his downfall, and his daughter Agatha, cloistered with him in his banishment, is left to pick through the rubble of his smoking, ruined legacy. "Elegant and muscular, powerful and razor-sharp, here is Greek tragedy and political saga all in one, a glittering exorcism of the inter-war generation's demons". Please do not overlook this superb evocation of that sticky, feverish time which has just the right mixture of doomed fun and faintly lascivious despair. 608pp, paperback.