Lovers and Newcomers

From the bestselling author of Iris and Ruby comes a novel of a group of friends. They were wild in the 60s; but now they face turning sixty themselves.

Miranda Meadowe decides a lonely widowhood in her crumbling country house is not for her. Reviving a university dream, she invites five of her oldest friends to come and join her to live, and to stave off the prospect of old age. All have their own reasons for accepting.

To begin with, omens are good. They laugh, dance, drink and behave badly, as they cling to the heritage they thought was theirs for ever: power, health, stability. They are the baby boomers; the world is theirs to change. But as old attractions resurface alongside new tensions, they discover that the clock can’t be put back.

When building work reveals an Iron Age burial site of a tribal queen, the outside world descends on their idyllic retreat, and the isolation of the group is breached. Now the past is revealed; and the future that beckons is very different from the one they imagined.

Reviews

Praise for Constance:

'Heart-rending and beautifully written…I read it in one delicious go, tears pouring down my face. You cannot fail to be moved' Emma Lee-Potter, Express

'A lush and sweeping voyage of self-discovery' Eithne Farry, Daily Mail

‘Prepare to be dazzled…an epic tale of sisterhood and betrayal.’ Company

‘A terrific book, beautifully written… questions about identity, belonging, infidelity, dying and forgiveness make this a very moving study of the human heart.’ Australian Women’s Weekly

Praise for Rosie Thomas:

‘Rosie Thomas writes with beautiful, effortless prose, and shows a rare compassion and a real understanding of the nature of love.’ The Times

‘Honest and absorbing, Rosie Thomas mixes the bitter and the hopeful with the knowledge that the human heart is far more complicated than any rule suggests.’ Mail on Sunday

‘A master storyteller.’ Cosmopolitan

‘Thomas’s novels are beautifully written. This one is a treat.’ Marie Claire

About the author

Rosie Thomas is the author of a number of celebrated novels, including the bestsellers The Kashmir Shawl, Sun at Midnight, Iris and Ruby and Constance. Once she was established as a writer and her children were grown, she discovered a love of travelling and mountaineering. She has climbed in the Alps and the Himalayas, competed in the Peking to Paris car rally, spent time on a tiny Bulgarian research station in Antarctica and travelled the silk road through Asia. She lives in London.