Escape

Amidst the storm of the Franco-Prussian War, a desperate woman makes a perilous gamble. The enchanting Miranda Valmont, with her dying mother's fate hanging in the balance, approaches the enigmatic and impossibly wealthy Earl of Kyleston with a most unladylike proposal. The Earl, weary of scheming London society and staying in Paris to escape the advances of Lady Irene, is intrigued by Miranda's audacity and decides to help her, but when her mother dies, the Earl insists that Miranda should return with him to England. Yet before they can leave, the Earl is injured in a riot outside the Opera House and while he lies unconscious, the Siege of Paris begins and their hoped-for escape seems destined to fail. Trapped within the city's walls their only hope is a daring and audacious plan. But will their escape deliver them to freedom, or into the arms of something more perilous that the siege itself?

Dame Barbara Cartland was one of the most successful and well-known of all British romance novelists and was undoubtedly the most prolific, writing 723 books in her long lifetime of which 675 are romantic novels and include 160 brand new titles that are currently being published as the Barbara Cartland Pink Collection. She wrote across a wide variety of genres, but is of course most closely associated with romance, and with her stories of chaste heroines, dashing heroes and everyone finally living happily ever after. Barbara was a colourful character in many senses of the word and was as well known for her controversial and witty interviews and absorbingly exciting life story as she was for her bright pink clothes and extravagant appearance. To read Barbara Cartland's life story is to be impressed that someone could fit so much into only one life. As well as writing a staggering number of books, she was also involved with great advances in many diverse fields from aviation to alternative medicine and helped many groups who she perceived as being unfairly treated, from midwives in poor working conditions to Romany gypsy children who wanted to be allowed to attend school. She was fascinatingly contradictory in her interviews and novels, Barbara often extolled the virtues of traditional relationships between men and women and falling in love, but hers is the story of a driven, independent-minded woman who was unafraid to turn her hand to anything which interested her and right wrongs Barbara Cartland is synonymous with traditional romantic fiction, but her life story is perhaps just as engrossing as her fiction.