Margaret Irwin: 10 books

This, unlike most of Margaret Irwin's books, is not an historical novel. It is a peep-show at recent times, so fantastically gay that this, our London, appears as the iridescent scene of a pantomime or holiday charade. What happened behind the door at which one had to knock four times? Many...

Margaret Irwin was a prolific and popular author of the mid-20th century. Set in a mythical forest, and presented as a fractured memoirs, 'Monsieur Seeks a Wife' is one of her most intriguing tales. Many of the earliest occult stories, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now...

James Graham, Marquis of Montrose, the soldier-poet who fought so magnificently and so fruitlessly for his King, Charles I.A tale of seduction and witchcraft and a promise made to Charles 1 to "raise Scotland for the King" Margaret Irwin's novels of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries...

None So Pretty describes, with a sensibility and conviction unusual in historical fiction, the life of a young girl brought up in a large, aristocratic, but impecunious family, and married off at an early age to a neighbouring squire who nightly drinks himself under the table. It is not long before...

This is not an historical novel in the ordinary sense. It is something new: the life of an actual royal family, whose story is so rich and varied that it falls naturally into the form of a modern novel. The heroine is Princess Henrietta of England, known to family as Minette. She is the Duchess of...

First published in 1953, the first five stories in this collection are stories from Ireland, exploring the dark history of the country and the dogged optimism of its people. The following four tales are of the uncanny - striking studies of witchcraft and black magic, evoking a strange haunting...

Queen of Scotland at six days old. Queen of France at seventeen years old. A widow at eighteen. The young and trusting Mary, Queen of Scots, is sailing home to her kingdom after years in exile. The danger from her cousin, the English Queen, has not lessened since then. Religious divides threaten to...

The story of the romance between the Marquis of Montrose, the soldier-poet who fought so magnificently for Charles I, and the enchanting, wayward Princess Louise, sister of Rupert of the Rhine.

The story moves between the 1920s and the 1770s, following two heroines: 20th century Jan Challard, a London girl, and 18th century Juliana Clare, the youngest daughter of an aristocratic Berkshire family. Jan is independent and spirited, but leads a humdrum life, working in an office, and walks out...

From the moment that you enter the world (should you ever have that misfortune), your immediate concern will be to find a companion, and when you have done so you will believe that you have found yourself. You will discover a hitherto unimagined interest and value in all your actions, thoughts and...