By reading the work of the British modernists - Dorothy Richardson, Sylvia Townsend Warner, Mary Butts and Virginia Woolf - through the lens of material culture, this text argues that women's imaginative work is inseparable from their ambivalent, complicated relation to Britain's imperial history.

"The Daughters of England" from Sarah Stickney Ellis. English author (1799-1872).

In Regency England, a woman risks scandal, disgrace, even her own life for a forbidden passion in this “sure-to-please saga” (Kirkus Reviews). From the moment the handsome, raffish stranger with the gold earring throws her a kiss, Jessica Frenshaw is enchanted. Rumored to be a half-Spanish wanderer who can predict the future, Romany Jake is unjustly put on trial for murder. After the verdict banishes him from England, Jessica despairs of ever seeing him again. But one fateful day, Jake Cadorson returns to reclaim what he has lost—including the woman who saved him from the gallows. From the ballrooms and lavish estates of Regency England through the bitter bloodshed of the Napoleonic Wars, Return of the Gypsy weaves a spellbinding tale of blackmail, murder, and illicit passion as a woman risks everything for the man she loves—a man who isn’t what he seems.

A crime binds a man and woman together in this “entertaining” novel ranging from Victorian England to Australia by a New York Times–bestselling author (Publishers Weekly). Young Angelet is fascinated by the haunting rumors surrounding the Pool of St. Branok—superstitious tales of its cursed, bottomless waters. The innocent Cornish girl shares the ghostly story with Benedict Lansdon, the handsome, illegitimate grandson of a family friend, and promises to show him the spot. But tragedy strikes when they meet at the pool, and Angelet and Ben become complicit in a crime that could send Ben to the gallows. Ben returns to Australia, but the pair feels bound by their terrible secret. After a whirlwind season in London, Angelet marries Gervaise Mandeville, a charming rogue with a weakness for gambling. As the casualties from the Crimean War mount, Gervaise decides to try his luck in the Australian gold rush. Angelet travels across the world with him, only to once again be ensnared in a fatal act of violence. Alone in the outback, Angelet faces her own day of reckoning from a long-ago crime—and gets a second chance at love.

In Tudor England, a dark mystery threatens a marriage. “Carr is a master at creating and sustaining suspense . . . a story that will draw you in” (Regan Romance Review). Linnet Pennlyon, proud daughter of a sea captain, finds herself in a vicious trap: Pregnancy has forced her to marry the cunning Squire Colum Casvellyn. Once their baby is born, she devotes herself to their son. Yet, little by little, against her will, Linnet finds herself drawn to her passionate, mercurial husband. Dark secrets lurk in their castle: The squire’s first wife died amid rumors of foul play. When a beautiful stranger washes up on the shore, Linnet suddenly finds she’s no longer in control of her family—or her life. It falls to Linnet’s daughter, Tamsyn, to uncover the truth about a long-ago night . . . and put to rest the rumors about her beloved mother. Her discovery sets in motion an unstoppable chain of events that will reverberate for decades to come.

Virginal, chaste, humble, patiently waiting for rescue by brave knights and handsome princes: this idealized – and largely mythical – notion of the medieval noblewoman still lingers. Yet the reality was very different, as Kelcey Wilson-Lee shows in this vibrant account of the five daughters of the great English king, Edward I. The lives of these sisters – Eleanora, Joanna, Margaret, Mary and Elizabeth – ran the full gamut of experiences open to royal women in the Middle Ages. Living as they did in a courtly culture founded on romantic longing and brilliant pageantry, they knew that a princess was to be chaste yet a mother to many children, preferably sons, meek yet able to influence a recalcitrant husband or even command a host of men-at-arms. Edward’s daughters were of course expected to cement alliances and secure lands and territory by making great dynastic marriages, or endow religious houses with royal favour. But they also skilfully managed enormous households, navigated choppy diplomatic waters and promoted their family’s cause throughout Europe – and had the courage to defy their royal father. They might never wear the crown in their own right, but they were utterly confident of their crucial role in the spectacle of medieval kingship. Drawing on a wide range of contemporary sources, Daughters of Chivalry offers a rich portrait of these spirited Plantagenet women. With their libraries of beautifully illustrated psalters and tales of romance, their rich silks and gleaming jewels, we follow these formidable women throughout their lives and see them – at long last – shine from out of the shadows, revealing what it was to be a princess in the Age of Chivalry.

DIVWhile the world teeters on the brink of World War I, a young woman’s indiscretion leads to a seething viper’s nest of blackmail and murder /divDIV In 1912, with war looming on the horizon, thirteen-year-old Lucinda Greenham is sent to an exclusive boarding school in Belgium. Her joy in sharing this adventure with her best friend, Annabelinda, is cut short when Annabelinda has a clandestine affair leading to pregnancy. Annabelinda’s family arranges a “rest cure” and when the girl returns to school, she seems to have forgotten the incident. Then, in the wake of Germany’s invasion of Belgium, Lucinda and Annabelinda are forced to flee across Europe and find a welcome savior in the dashing Major Marcus Merrivale./divDIV /divDIVSafely back in England, Lucinda vows to keep her friend’s secret. But someone in the household has uncovered the truth about Annabelinda and the lively baby called Edward. Now Lucinda, who has lost her heart to a decorated soldier, is faced with keeping another secret. As a blackmail plot erupts in murder, and war eradicates a way of life forever, Lucinda discovers that there is a time for love . . . and a time for silence./div