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An absorbing family drama - "the Little Women of our times.' With the publication of BEYOND THE ORCHID HOUSE, the Quantocks Quartet is complete. This is the story of Gwen, the third of the four Purcell sisters. Unlike the others, she has stayed at home all her life, tending the large Hillcrest garden and pursuing her artistic endeavours. On the surface, it's a life of unruffled calm - a calm behin... More

An absorbing family drama - "the Little Women of our times.' With the publication of BEYOND THE ORCHID HOUSE, the Quantocks Quartet is complete. This is the story of Gwen, the third of the four Purcell sisters. Unlike the others, she has stayed at home all her life, tending the large Hillcrest garden and pursuing her artistic endeavours. On the surface, it's a life of unruffled calm - a calm behind which Gwen can hide from the hurt and disappointment of her past and avoid the problems of the present. The unexpected - and unwelcome - gift of a collection of orchids is the first event to shatter that calm, followed by the arrival of the volatile Tony, which in turn leads her to accept, against her instincts, an invitation to visit an unknown orchid grower in Germany. It is 1936, the Nazis are in power and, forced beyond the sheltering boundaries of the orchid house, Gwen has to face the tough realities of the modern world...As with the previous three titles, all of which are now being reissued with new covers, BEYOND THE ORCHID HOUSE blends the lives and loves of the sisters with major historic events. Ruth Elwin Harris was born and brought up in the West Country. After a number of years living and working abroad - including a period stage-managing a semi-professional theatre company in North America and another helping out at an orphanage run by Mother Theresa in Delhi - she now lives with her husband and family in Harrogate, North Yorkshire. She has had several stories published in magazines and broadcast on BBC Radio 4. * "The family relationships are convincingly portrayed with considerable insight. Her descriptions of countryside, flowers and scenery and of emotions are vivid, but her real strengths lie in characterisation." School Librarian * The publication in paperback of the final book in this acclaimed saga, plus books 1,2 & 3 with fine new covers. * "The Little Women of our times." The Times * Quantocks Quartet dumpbin with striking header.

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