Download or read book Good Behaviour written by Molly Keane and published by Hachette UK. This book was released on 2011-08-04 with total page 186 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Discover this wickedly funny classic about the very bad behaviour of an aristocratic family - A BBC2 Between the Covers pick! *** 'Molly Keane is a mistress of wicked comedy' VOGUE 'Dark, complex, engaging . . . a wonderful tour de force' MARIAN KEYES I do know how to behave - believe me, because I know. I have always known . . . Behind the gates of Temple Alice, the aristocratic Anglo-Irish St Charles family sinks into a state of decaying grace. To Aroon St Charles, large and unlovely daughter of the house, the fierce forces of sex, money, jealousy and love seem locked out by the ritual patterns of good behaviour. But crumbling codes of conduct cannot hope to save the members of the St Charles family from their own unruly and inadmissible desires. . . 'I have read and re-read Molly Keane more, I think, than any other writer. Nobody else can touch her as a satirist, tragedian and dissector of human behaviour. I love all her books, but Good Behaviour and Loving and Giving are the ones I return to most' MAGGIE O'FARRELL

Download or read book The Rising Tide written by Molly Keane and published by Virago. This book was released on 2013-05-23 with total page 255 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: BY THE AUTHOR SHORTLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE INTRODUCED BY POLLY DEVLIN 'Psychologically sharp, socially knowing and closely knit' IRISH TIMES 'She was . . . marvellous' GUARDIAN 'A writer of genius' WALL STREET JOURNAL One glorious gothic mansion - Garonlea - and two rather different ladies who would be Queen . . . Lady Charlotte French-McGrath has successfully ruled over her family with a rod of iron until the arrival of Cynthia: beautiful, young, talented, selfish - and engaged to her son Desmond. When Cynthia enters the Jazz Age, on the surface her life passes in a whirl of hunting, drinking and romance. But the ghosts of Garonlea are only biding their time: they know the source of their power, a secret handed on from one generation to the next.

Download or read book Time After Time written by Molly Keane and published by Virago. This book was released on 2013-05-23 with total page 202 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Durraghglass is a beautiful mansion in Southern Ireland, now crumbling in neglect. The time is the present - a present that churns with the bizarre passions of its owners' past. The Swifts - three sisters of marked eccentricity, defiantly christened April, May and Baby June, and their only brother, one-eyed Jasper - have little in common, save vivid memories of darling Mummy, and a long lost youth peculiarly prone to acts of treachery. Into their world comes Cousin Leda from Vienna, a visitor from the past, blind but beguiling - a thrilling guest. But within days, the lifestyle of the Swifts has been dramatically overturned - and desires, dormant for so long, flame fierce and bright as ever.

Download or read book Molly Keane written by Sally Phipps and published by Hachette UK. This book was released on 2017-01-26 with total page 254 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Molly Keane (1904 - 96) was an Irish novelist and playwright (born in County Kildare) most famous for Good Behaviour which was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. Hailed as the Irish Nancy Mitford in her day; as well as writing books she was the leading playwright of the '30s, her work directed by John Gielgud. Between 1928 and 1956, she wrote eleven novels, and some of her earlier plays, under the pseudonym M.J. Farrell. In 1981, aged seventy, she published Good Behaviour under her own name. The manuscript, which had languished in a drawer for many years, was lent to a visitor, the actress Peggy Ashcroft, who encouraged Keane to publish it. Molly Keane's novels reflect the world she inhabited; she was from a 'rather serious hunting and fishing, church-going family'. She was educated, as was the custom in Anglo-Irish households, by a series of governesses and then at boarding school. Distant and awkward relationships between children and their parents would prove to be a recurring theme for Keane. Maggie O'Farrell wrote that 'she writes better than anyone else about the mother-daughter relationship, in all its thorny, fraught, inescapable complexity.' Here, for the first time, is her biography and, written by one of her two daughters, it provides an honest portrait of a fascinating, complicated woman who was a brilliant writer and a portrait of the Anglo-Irish world of the first half of the twentieth century.

Download or read book Devoted Ladies written by M. J. Farrell and published by Penguin Group. This book was released on 1985 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jessica and Jane have been living together for six months. They are devoted friends--or are they? Jessica loves her friend with the cruelty of total possessiveness. Jane is rich, silly, and drinks rather too many brandy-and-sodas. Watching from the sidelines, Sylvester regrets that she should be loved and bullied and perhaps even murdered by that frightful Jessica, but decides it is none of his business. When the Irish gentleman George Playfair meets Jane, however, he thinks otherwise--he entices Jane to Ireland where the battle for her devotion begins. A studied satire of art deco decadence and louche behavior, "Devoted Ladies" is a sharp and glittering satire on female love.

Download or read book Mad Puppetstown written by Molly Keane and published by Virago. This book was released on 2013-05-02 with total page 183 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'She was . . . marvellous' GUARDIAN 'I admired many authors. But Molly, I loved' DIANA ATHILL 'A writer of genius' WALL STREET JOURNAL In the early 1900s, Easter lives with her Aunt Brenda, her cousins Evelyn and Basil, and their Great-Aunt Dicksie in an imposing country house, Puppetstown which casts a spell over their childhood. Here they spend carefree days taunting the peacocks in Aunt Dicksie's garden, shooting snipe and woodcock, hunting, and playing with Patsy, the boot boy. But the house and its inhabitants are not immune to the 'little, bitter, forgotten war in Ireland' and when it finally touches their lives all flee to England. All except Aunt Dicksie who refuses to surrender Puppetstown's magic. She stays on with Patsy, living in a corner of the deserted house while in England the cousins are groomed for Society. But for two of them those wild, lost Puppetstown years cannot be forgotten.

Download or read book Loving And Giving written by Molly Keane and published by Hachette UK. This book was released on 2015-01-22 with total page 186 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: FROM THE SHORTLISTED AUTHOR FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE 'Molly Keane is astonishing . . . an exquisitely written black comedy with a shock ending' GUARDIAN 'Quite the best book she has written' DAILY TELEGRAPH 'I admired many authors. But Molly, I loved' DIANA ATHILL In 1914, when Nicandra is eight, all is well in the grand Irish estate, Deer Forest. Maman is beautiful and adored. Dada, silent and small, mooches contendedly around the stables. Aunt Tossie, of the giant heart and bosom, is widowed but looks splendid in weeds. The butler, the groom, the landsteward, the maids, the men - each as a place and knows it. Then, astonishingly, the perfect surface is shattered; Maman does something too dreadful ever to be spoken of. 'What next? Who to love?' asks Nicaranda. And through her growing up and marriage her answer is to swamp those around her with kindness - while gradually the great house crumbles under a weight of manners and misunderstanding.

Download or read book Full House written by Molly Keane and published by Virago. This book was released on 2013-05-02 with total page 209 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: FROM THE AUTHOR SHORTLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE 'She was . . . marvellous' GUARDIAN 'Keane's distinctive blend of elegant savagery and deep affection' EVENING STANDARD 'I admired many authors. But Molly, I loved' DIANA ATHILL Silverue - an enchanting Irish mansion - is owned by one of the most frightening mothers in fiction - the indomitable, oppressively girlish Lady Bird. Blessed with wealth and beautiful children she has little to worry about except the passing of the years and the return of her son John's sanity. To help her through the potentially awkward occasion of John's return from the asylum she has enlisted the support of Eliza, a woman she believes to be her confidante. But Eliza has her own secrets and John's homecoming will prove the catalyst for revelations which Lady Bird would much rather leave buried.

Download or read book Molly Keane written by Sally Phipps and published by Virago. This book was released on 2017-01-26 with total page 254 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Molly Keane (1904 - 96) was an Irish novelist and playwright (born in County Kildare) most famous for Good Behaviour which was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. Hailed as the Irish Nancy Mitford in her day; as well as writing books she was the leading playwright of the '30s, her work directed by John Gielgud. Between 1928 and 1956, she wrote eleven novels, and some of her earlier plays, under the pseudonym M.J. Farrell. In 1981, aged seventy, she published Good Behaviour under her own name. The manuscript, which had languished in a drawer for many years, was lent to a visitor, the actress Peggy Ashcroft, who encouraged Keane to publish it. Molly Keane's novels reflect the world she inhabited; she was from a 'rather serious hunting and fishing, church-going family'. She was educated, as was the custom in Anglo-Irish households, by a series of governesses and then at boarding school. Distant and awkward relationships between children and their parents would prove to be a recurring theme for Keane. Maggie O'Farrell wrote that 'she writes better than anyone else about the mother-daughter relationship, in all its thorny, fraught, inescapable complexity.' Here, for the first time, is her biography and, written by one of her two daughters, it provides an honest portrait of a fascinating, complicated woman who was a brilliant writer and a portrait of the Anglo-Irish world of the first half of the twentieth century.

Download or read book Queen Lear written by Molly Keane and published by Penguin Group. This book was released on 1990 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Ask Again Yes written by Mary Beth Keane and published by Scribner. This book was released on 2019-05-28 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The triumphant New York Times Bestseller *The Tonight Show Summer Reads Pick* Named one of the Best Books of the Year by People, Vogue, Parade, NPR, and Elle "A gem of a book." —Taylor Jenkins Reid, author of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo How much can a family forgive? Francis Gleeson and Brian Stanhope, rookie NYPD cops, are neighbors in the suburbs. What happens behind closed doors in both houses—the loneliness of Francis’s wife, Lena, and the instability of Brian’s wife, Anne, sets the stage for the explosive events to come. In Mary Beth Keane's extraordinary novel, a lifelong friendship and love blossoms between Kate Gleeson and Peter Stanhope, born six months apart. One shocking night their loyalties are divided, and their bond will be tested again and again over the next thirty years. Heartbreaking and redemptive, Ask Again, Yes is a gorgeous and generous portrait of the daily intimacies of marriage and the power of forgiveness.

Download or read book Young Entry written by Molly Keane and published by Little Brown and Company (UK). This book was released on 2006-04-11 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Prudence, at nineteen, is reckless, laughing, wild; the despair of her elderly guardians. With her best friend, the subversive but very female Peter, she rackets round the Irish countryside among her beloved horses and dogs. But she feels betrayed by Peter's growing interest in the new Master of Hounds, 'Saxon' Major Anthony Countless. And what is Prudence to make of handsome Toby Sage, neighbour, huntsman and accredited flirt? Or of an inexplicable haunting? First published in 1928, this high-spirited novel with its subtle erotic undercurrents, is a glorious story of a ramshackle, tolerant society and of Prudence's turbulent coming of age.

Download or read book The South written by Colm Toibin and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2012-10-30 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A highly acclaimed novel from the author of Brooklyn and an “immensely gifted and accomplished writer” (The Washington Post), about an Irishwoman who creates a new life in post-war Spain. In 1950, Katherine Proctor leaves Ireland for Barcelona, determined to escape her family and become a painter. There she meets Miguel, an anarchist veteran of the Spanish Civil War, and begins to build a life with him. But Katherine cannot escape her past, as Michael Graves, a fellow Irish émigré in Spain, forces her to reexamine all her relationships: to her lover, her art, and the homeland she only thought she knew. The South is a novel of classic themes—of art and exile, and of the seemingly irreconcilable yearnings for love and freedom—to which Colm Tóibín brings a new, passionate sensitivity.

Download or read book Once Upon a Cloud written by Claire Keane and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2015-03-03 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Fresh from her work on Frozen and Tangled, Claire Keane brings her legendary talent to her debut picture book about finding the right present for someone you love. Celeste wants to give her mother something special—but what? Her search takes her up into the skies, where she meets the stars, the moon and the sun, but she still doesn’t find the heartfelt present she’s been looking for. At the end of her journey, Celeste sees it—the perfect gift! Chosen with care and wrapped with love, it’s just what Celeste was hoping to find. In this story about finding unexpected inspiration and giving from the heart, Claire Keane invites readers on a magical journey through the clouds. The result is a visually stunning book that really and truly is the perfect gift.

Download or read book Molly Moon s Incredible Book of Hypnotism written by Georgia Byng and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2010-11-30 with total page 388 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Welcome to the Wonderful World of Hypnotism Molly Moon is no ordinary orphan. When she finds a mysterious old book on hypnotism, she discovers she can make people do whatever she wants. But a sinister stranger is watching her every move and he'll do anything to steal her hypnotic secret...

Download or read book Stet written by Diana Athill and published by Open Road + Grove/Atlantic. This book was released on 2014-10-15 with total page 173 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A New York Times Notable Book: This memoir of a career in book publishing “should please anyone who cares about twentieth-century literature” (The Washington Post Book World). For nearly five decades, Diana Athill edited (nursed, coerced, coaxed) some of the most celebrated writers in the English language, among them V. S. Naipaul, Philip Roth, John Updike, Jean Rhys, Mordecai Richler, Molly Keane, and Norman Mailer. A founding editor of the prestigious publishing house André Deutsch Ltd., Athill takes us on a guided tour through the corridors of literary London, offering a keenly observed, devilishly funny, and always compassionate insider’s portrait of the glories and pitfalls of making books—spiced with candid insights about the type of people who make brilliant writers and ingenious publishers, and the idiosyncrasies of both. It is both “wryly humorous” (The New York Times Book Review) and “full of history, wisdom, and dirt” (The Boston Globe). “This is not literary life as we know it today—huge advances, showbiz and vast conglomerates—but the world of small literary houses . . . An enveloping blast of nostalgia: read and marvel at what we (all of us) are missing.” —Marie Claire “A beautifully written, hard-headed, and generally insightful look back at the heyday of post-war London publishing by a woman who was at its center for nearly half a century.” —The Washington Times “Witty and astute . . . The literarily curious will find [her] portraits of leading contemporary authors irresistible.” —Publishers Weekly

Download or read book Loving Without Tears written by Molly Keane and published by Virago. This book was released on 2013-05-02 with total page 215 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'She was . . . marvellous' GUARDIAN 'I admired many authors. But Molly, I loved' DIANA ATHILL 'A writer of genius' WALL STREET JOURNAL Angel, formidable hostess, social charmer and mother par excellence, confidently awaits the return of her little boy from the trials of war. She could not anticipate that the teenager who went away will return a grown man - bronzed and world-weary - a sophisticated American widow on his arm. Nor could she anticpate that her irrepressible daughter Slaney will similarly throw herself into romance (without asking her advice) and even her niece Tiddley will show an unexpected determination in getting on with her life. Faced with domestic insurrection on a grand scale, Angel will have to sharpen her wits to maintain her tyranny.