Overview
'Unapologetically romantic, extremely funny, wry, dry, witty - and hugely uplifting' - Marian Keyes 'Full of goodness, generosity and romance!' - Jessie Burton 'Radiant and comforting' - The TLS 'Sheer bliss from start to finish' - Daily Mail Award-winner Eva Ibbotson's The Secret Countess is a classic historical romance that stretches across countries, families and class divides. After revolution tears her country apart, young Russian countess Anna Grazinsky is forced to flee Saint Petersburg for rural England, where her now penniless family has no choice but to rely on the kindness of their only friend, Anna's old governess. Determined to help her family in any way possible, Anna arms herself with an out-of-date book on housekeeping and takes work as a servant at a crumbling mansion in the English countryside. 1919 sees Rupert, the handsome young Earl of Westerholme, return from war and become instantly mesmerized by Anna. As powerful attraction clashes with tradition, Anna finds concealing her true identity increasingly impossible.
Full Product Details
Author: Eva Ibbotson
Publisher: Pan Macmillan
Imprint: Picador
Dimensions:
Width: 13.10cm
, Height: 2.20cm
, Length: 19.90cm
Weight: 0.244kg
ISBN: 9781035047062
ISBN 10: 1035047063
Pages: 352
Publication Date: 01 May 2025
Recommended Age: From 18 years
Audience:
Children/juvenile
,
Children's (6-12)
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: Not yet available
This item is yet to be released. You can pre-order this item and we will dispatch it to you upon its release.
Reviews
Elegantly written, witty and well-observed -- Nigella Lawson * The Sunday Times * Sheer bliss from start to finish * Daily Mail * So full of goodness, generosity and romance! I loved The Secret Countess -- Jessie Burton * Good Housekeeping * Radiant and comforting * The TLS * My comfort reads Eva Ibbotson’s The Morning Gift or The Secret Countess. Such an interesting writer: an Austrian refugee who came to the UK in the 1930s. Both novels are about displaced people in a time of war but written with such a lightness of touch and extraordinary charm that they always change my mood to hopeful. Absolute balm. -- Marian Keyes * The Guardian *
My comfort reads Eva Ibbotson’s The Morning Gift or The Secret Countess. Such an interesting writer: an Austrian refugee who came to the UK in the 1930s. Both novels are about displaced people in a time of war but written with such a lightness of touch and extraordinary charm that they always change my mood to hopeful. Absolute balm. -- Marian Keyes * The Guardian *
Author Information
Eva Ibbotson was born in Vienna in 1925 and fled to England with her family when the Nazis came to power. She became a writer while bringing up her four children in Newcastle. Her bestselling novels have been published and loved by readers around the world. Her novels for adults, all rich historical romances, convey her deep love of the arts, the Austrian countryside, and the importance of belonging. In 2001, her children's novel Journey to the River Sea won the Nestle Gold Award and was shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal, the Whitbread Children's Book of the Year and the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize. Eva passed away peacefully in October 2010 at the age of eighty-five.
