<div>In 1930s France, a free-spirited mother undertakes to derail her very proper daughter&rsquo;s engagement Julia Packett has barely laid eyes on her daughter, Susan, since leaving her with her well-heeled in-laws following the loss of her husband in World War I. Now thirty-seven, Julia&rsquo;s lack of prospects hasn&rsquo;t dimmed her spirit or her appetite for life. But when Susan asks her to come to France for the summer to persuade her grandmother to allow her to marry, she sets sail with the noblest intentions of acting the paragon of motherhood. At her mother-in-law&rsquo;s vacation villa in Haute Savoie, however, Julia sees that her priggish but lovely daughter is completely mismatched with a man much more suited to herself: a charming, clever playboy. The arrival of Susan&rsquo;s legal guardian, the distinguished Sir William Waring, further complicates the situation. Soon Julia&rsquo;s efforts to pass herself off as a lady and secure her daughter&rsquo;s happiness spin out of control, leading to romantic entanglements and madcap adventures that will challenge preconceived notions about the ultimate compatibility of any two people who fall in love.</div>

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The Nutmeg Tree

<div>An unconventional parlor maid upends the lives of an aristocratic family in prewar England Cluny Brown refuses to know her place in society. Last week, she took herself to tea at the Ritz. Then she spent almost an entire day in bed eating oranges. So, to teach her discipline, her uncle, a plumber who has raised the orphaned girl since she was a baby, sends her into service as a parlor maid at one of England&rsquo;s stately manor houses. At Friars Carmel in Devonshire, Cluny meets her employers: Sir Henry, the quintessential country squire, and Lady Carmel, who oversees the management of her home with unruffled calm. Their son, Andrew, newly returned from abroad with a Polish &eacute;migr&eacute; writer friend, is certain the country is once again on the brink of war. Then there&rsquo;s Andrew&rsquo;s beautiful fianc&eacute;e and the priggish town pharmacist. While everyone around her struggles to keep pace with a rapidly changing world, Cluny continues to be Cluny, transforming those around her with her infectious zest for life. &ldquo;An entertaining story of England just before the war . . . Top drawer reading.&rdquo; &mdash;Kirkus Reviews</div>

Cluny Brown

<div>A young woman learns about painting&mdash;and more&mdash;in 1940s Paris in this &ldquo;outrageously funny&rdquo; novel by the New York Times&ndash;bestselling author of The Eye of Love (Newark Evening News). Eighteen-year-old Martha is blessed with the opportunity of a lifetime: an all-expenses-paid trip to Paris to study where some of the world&rsquo;s greatest painters lived and worked. Despite her single-minded pursuit of creativity, she attracts an admirer in the City of Light. It isn&rsquo;t a debonair Frenchman who seduces her, but a homesick British bank clerk who offers her all the creature comforts of home. And when an unexpected complication arises, Martha deals with the consequences in her usual sensible, independent fashion. Witty, tender, and richly evocative of late 1940s Paris, Martha in Paris is a beguiling portrait of the artist as a young woman as she learns the facts of life. </div>

Martha in Paris

<div>In Victorian England, a glamorous, mysterious young woman overturns the lives of a traditional Devonshire farm family, in Margery Sharp&rsquo;s humorous, heartwarming New York Times&ndash;bestselling novel On a farm in Devonshire, during a long hot summer, three women await the arrival of a fourth. The corseted, petticoated Sylvesters are no ordinary females. They are as fair-tempered as they are big and strong, the wives of modestly prosperous farmers who can stand up to the heat of a parlor&mdash;their pride and joy&mdash;as well as a scorching harvest field. And the men they chose for husbands are their equals. Today is cause for celebration: The youngest Sylvester brother is arriving with his bride-to-be. But Fanny Davis will change all their lives. The slender, petite woman is given to unnamed ailments and is full of secrets. Where did she come from? What does she really want from the bumpkin she agreed to marry? None of the Sylvester ladies can imagine the tempest that will strike their peaceful farm when the deadly Miss Davis gets to work. </div>

The Gypsy in the Parlour

<div>A passionate heroine defies the English class system in this novel set in 1875 London&mdash;perfect for lovers of Edith Wharton and Downton Abbey. Around the corner from the elegant townhouses on Albion Place is Britannia Mews, a squalid neighborhood where servants and coachmen live. In 1875, it&rsquo;s no place for a young girl of fine breeding, but independent-minded Adelaide Culver is fascinated by what goes on there. Years later, Adelaide shocks her family when she falls in love with an impoverished artist and moves into the mews. But violence shatters Adelaide&rsquo;s dreams. In a dangerous new world, she must fend for herself&mdash;until she meets a charismatic stranger and her life takes a turn she never expected. A novel about social manners and mores reminiscent of Edith Wharton, this story of love, family, and the price one must pay for throwing off the shackles of convention is also a witty and incisive dissection of the &ldquo;upstairs, downstairs&rdquo; English class system of the last two centuries. </div>

Britannia Mews

<div>A Jazz Age socialite impulsively adopts an orphaned boy in this humorous, heartwarming tale In 1929 London, twenty-eight-year-old Lesley Frewen lives a privileged, cultured life. But one thing is missing: love. When her aunt&rsquo;s female companion suddenly dies, leaving behind a young son, Lesley decides on a whim to adopt four-year-old Patrick&mdash;though she doesn&rsquo;t have any particular affection for children. As soon as Patrick moves in with her, Lesley gets to work using her connections to enroll him in the finest boys&rsquo; school. But she quickly discovers London is no place to raise a child, and they relocate to the tiny village of High Westover. The hamlet boasts a post office, a church, and a vicarage. There&rsquo;s an apple orchard and children for Patrick to play with. However, the country comes with its own set of daunting challenges: Lesley can&rsquo;t imagine how she&rsquo;ll entertain her friends there! But ultimately life with Patrick will change her, bringing out her capacity to love and showing her the difference between pleasure and happiness.</div>

The Flowering Thorn

<div>Margery Sharp&rsquo;s most poignant novel, set during World War II and filled with her trademark wit and warmth, tells the story of the powerful bond forged between a British spinster and the unusual little girl left in her care As the threat of war looms, Cecilia and Rab Guthrie leave their young daughter, Antoinette, with a spinster friend in East Anglia, England, so they can enjoy a holiday on the continent. Three-year-old Antoinette doesn&rsquo;t speak, is inordinately clumsy, and must always be spoken to in quiet tones or else she becomes frightened. Then the outbreak of World War II forces Antoinette&rsquo;s parents to return to America without their daughter. As the years pass, a relationship grows between the unmarried, childless woman and her innocent charge. Slowly Antoinette begins to change, becoming less frightened and delighting in objects and words, as does her foster mother. But when the war is over, Cecilia comes to collect her daughter&mdash;and take her away from the only person who has every really understood her. An insightful, unsentimental novel about the challenges of raising a mentally challenged child in 1940s England, The Innocents sweeps readers along to its shocking conclusion. </div>

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The Innocents

<div>After ten years, a successful painter returns to Paris and the son she left behind on her ex-lover&rsquo;s doorstep, in Margery Sharp&rsquo;s sparkling novel that features the artistic heroine of Martha in Paris After studying with le ma&icirc;tre in Paris for a year, Martha returned to England to pursue her artistic destiny. Ten years later, she is an enormous success. But when she returns to Paris to attend an exhibition of her work, she must face some unfinished business she left behind: her ten-year-old son, George. Raised by his doting grandmother and his disinterested father, Eric, George attends his mother&rsquo;s exhibition and Martha realizes she may well have met her match&mdash;a member of the opposite sex who will not let her go through life unencumbered. Martha, Eric, and George is a witty and poignant novel about the indelible bond between mother and child, and the creative spark that can light up a life. </div>

Martha, Eric, and George

<div>In 1950s London, a career girl decides it&rsquo;s high time she snared herself a husband Professional dog photographer Louisa Datchett is indiscriminately fond of men. And they take shocking advantage of her good nature when they need their problems listened to, socks washed, prescriptions filled, or employment found. But by the age of thirty, Louisa is tired of constantly being dispatched to the scene of some masculine disaster. It&rsquo;s all well and good to be an independent woman&mdash;and certainly better than a &ldquo;timid Victorian wife&rdquo;&mdash;but the time has come for her to marry, and marry well. With the admirable discipline and dedication she&rsquo;s always displayed in any endeavor involving men, Louisa sets out on her own romantic quest.</div>

Something Light

<div>Margery Sharp&rsquo;s enchanting New York Times&ndash;bestselling novel about the profound ways that love can change our view of other people and the world around us Miss Dolores Diver and Harry Gibson have been passionately in love ever since they met at the Chelsea Arts Ball: He came as a brown paper parcel, she as a Spanish dancer. Only the eye of love could have transformed plain Dolores into a Spanish rose and stout Harry into the man of Dolores&rsquo;s dreams. But ten years later, during the Great Depression, Harry must marry his colleague&rsquo;s daughter in order to save his nearly bankrupt business. The course of true love never runs smoothly but with some inadvertent help from Dolores&rsquo;s keenly observant nine-year-old niece, Martha, Harry&rsquo;s grasping fianc&eacute;e, and Dolores&rsquo;s calculating lodger, Harry might succeed in both averting financial ruin and reclaiming his beloved. </div>

The Eye of Love

<div>Four charming, witty novels&mdash;including The Nutmeg Tree&mdash;from the &ldquo;highly gifted&rdquo; New York Times&ndash;bestselling author of Cluny Brown (The New Yorker). A master of the twentieth-century comedy of manners, British author Margery Sharp has been praised as &ldquo;one of the most gifted writers of comedy&rdquo; (Chicago Daily News) and &ldquo;a wonderful entertainer&rdquo; (The New Yorker). Available for the first time in a single volume, this quartet of novels provides a shining example of &ldquo;her brilliantly acerbic fiction . . . [and] one of her greatest talents, creating female characters of toughness and complexity&rdquo; (The New York Times). Something Light: In 1950s London, professional dog photographer Louisa Datchett has decided it&rsquo;s high time she snared herself a husband. Up until now, she&rsquo;s been indiscriminately fond of men, who&rsquo;ve taken shocking advantage of her good nature. At age thirty Louisa is ready for someone to take care of her and sets out on her romantic quest, in this New York Times bestseller. &ldquo;Brisk, bright, sly, engaging . . . a pleasure to read.&rdquo; &mdash;Chicago Tribune The Nutmeg Tree: Motherhood was never really free-spirited Julia Packett&rsquo;s thing. Following the loss of her husband in World War I, Julia turned to her well-heeled in-laws to raise her daughter. Now twenty, Susan invites her mother to France for the summer to persuade her grandmother to allow her to marry. When Julia arrives, she quickly sees that her proper daughter is mismatched with a playboy. And when Susan&rsquo;s distinguished legal guardian, Sir William Waring, shows up, romantic complications ensue. &ldquo;Original, subtle, and consistently entertaining.&rdquo; &mdash;Kirkus Reviews The Flowering Thorn: In 1929 London, socialite Lesley Frewen impulsively decides to adopt an orphaned boy. Moving to the tiny village of High Westover, Lesley finds herself challenged by a whole new way of life and changed by a young boy who begins to awaken her capacity to love. &ldquo;To those who &lsquo;discovered&rsquo; Margery Sharp with The Nutmeg Tree, the reissue of this earlier novel . . . will be good news. The city-bred-country-won theme is handled with gay humor and enough of sentiment for general appeal.&rdquo; &mdash;Kirkus Reviews The Innocents: As World War II separates a three-year-old, mentally challenged girl from her parents, a British spinster takes on the responsibility of raising her and the two grow closer. But when the war is over and the girl&rsquo;s mother returns, Antoinette doesn&rsquo;t want to be separated from the only person who&rsquo;s ever really understood her. &ldquo;Marvelously crafted . . . believable and heart-wrenching . . . [Sharp] is an incredibly perceptive writer.&rdquo; &mdash;The Literary Sisters</div>

The Margery Sharp Collection Volume One

<div>This New York Times&ndash;bestselling trilogy follows an artistic girl as she grows up to become a painter&mdash;from the &ldquo;highly gifted&rdquo; author of Cluny Brown (The New Yorker). A master of the twentieth-century comedy of manners, British author Margery Sharp has been praised as &ldquo;one of the most gifted writers of comedy&rdquo; (Chicago Daily News) and &ldquo;a wonderful entertainer&rdquo; (The New Yorker). In her New York Times bestseller, The Eye of Love, she introduced nine-year-old artist Martha, a character so fascinating Sharp continued her story into adulthood in two beautifully wrought follow-up novels. &ldquo;[Martha] offers a completely unique portrait of female genius, in all its single-minded dedication and selfishness&rdquo; (The New York Times). The Eye of Love: They met at the Chelsea Arts Ball: He came as a brown paper parcel, she as a Spanish dancer. Dolores and Harry have been passionately in love ever since. But ten years later, during the Great Depression, Harry must marry his colleague&rsquo;s daughter to rescue his nearly bankrupt business. Yet with help from Dolores&rsquo;s artistically inclined, orphaned nine-year-old niece, Martha, the couple may still find their way to happily ever after, in this New York Times bestseller. &ldquo;This postwar novel is one of her best.&rdquo; &mdash;The New York Times &ldquo;A double-plotted . . . masterpiece with a great deal of wit and not an ounce of sentimentality.&rdquo; &mdash;The Guardian Martha in Paris: Now eighteen, Martha is blessed with the opportunity of a lifetime: an all-expenses-paid trip to Paris to study painting. Despite her single-minded pursuit of creativity, she attracts an admirer in the City of Light&mdash;not a debonair Frenchman, but a homesick British bank clerk. When an unexpected complication arises, Martha deals with the consequences in her usual sensible, independent fashion. &ldquo;Chalk up another for Margery Sharp&rsquo;s collection of offbeat heroines and outrageously funny novels.&rdquo; &mdash;Newark Evening News Martha, Eric, and George: In the decade since her time in Paris, Martha has become a successful artist in England. Now, as she returns to Paris to attend an exhibition of her work, she must face some unfinished business&mdash;namely her ten-year-old son, George, who&rsquo;s been raised by his father, Eric, and doting grandmother. In this precocious Parisian boy, she is finally about to meet her match. &ldquo;Amusing, enjoyable, Miss Sharp is a born storyteller.&rdquo; &mdash;The Times (London)</div>

Margery Sharp
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Books By Margery Sharp (12 Books)