A Place in the Sun — Nicola Thorne

‘Didn't they all, after all, deserve a place in the sun for all they had endured? Few members of the family in this room had escaped deprivation and suffering as a result of the war.'

In this sequel to Never Such Innocence, Yesterday's Promises and Bright Morning, the saga of the Askham family from the 1940's to the 1960's reaches its conclusion.

The winds of change blow through Britain and the once-rich Askham dynasty has to face new tribulations, both political and personal. But with the tribulations comes the joy of new generations, new hope.

Their harmony is shattered by the arrival of Anna Ferov, daughter of Susan and Kyril, a Slavic beauty whose effect is to be devastating: she is a catalyst bringing with her unwitting pain and destruction. For her brother, Sasha, and his wife Stefanie, the 1950's mean struggle and heartbreak: theirs is a marriage that will falter but be reborn in fortitude. And for Charlotte's daughter Angelica, her life and loves are to mirror the political and social mores which change the face of post-war Britain.

At the head of the clan stands the matriarch Rachel, now nearing eighty, for whom the past is as vivid as the present: with much tragedy behind her, her hope is to preserve the dynasty from the perils of peace.

The fourth and final part of the Askham chronicles.