Jack smiled. "Maybe you had better change out of your wellies before you go to Paris."After faithfully nursing her invalid husband for eight years, widow Laura Brooke is re-emerging into the world. She finds a job with Oliver Farringdon, ambassador to an international organisation in Paris. He's divorced and needs someone to supervise his teenage daughter.
But can Laura cope with her demanding employer and with Paris after her solitary celibate life? Can she trade in her Wellington boots and Hampshire mud for the chic lifestyle of Paris and the sophisticated world of an ambassadorial household there?
Jane Eyre meets Nancy Mitford in this story of love and culture shock.
Nominated for the RNA/Foster Grant Award 2006
REVIEWS
France Magazine
‘A story of relationships and finding love, with convincing and very likeable characters. Vereker writes in an easy-to-read humorous style’
Carousel Magazine
When recently widowed Laura Brooke is offered a job in Paris as “a sort of lady-watchdog”, looking the teenage daughter of senior British diplomat, Oliver Farringdon, the scene is clearly set for a love match. We recognise an echo of Jane Eyre: Oliver is handsome and austere, and Laura has never aspired to Parisian chic. But even after the distinguished ambassador comes to appreciate Laura’s quiet competence, taste and good sense – as we knew he must – this is no fairytale.
Susie Vereker has assembled a cast of engaging characters and writes with an assured touch. ….
This is a hugely entertaining book by a gifted storyteller with exceptional perception. An absolute must!
Courier Magazine
Culture shock, romance, character studies, humour – it’s all here in this novel. ...A story of contrasts, in which the newly widowed heroine moves between two countries and two very different cultures: the small village in Hampshire and the smart diplomatic world of Paris.
The story unfolds as a modern Jane Austen might have written it: tracing the ups and downs of the heart, of course, but also as a sharp-eyed observance of character and customs. The alcoholic friend, the uncommunicative teenager, the chic Parisiennes are all there, while the stiff diplomatic circles in which Laura finds herself are a complete contrast to her previous hand-to-mouth existence in a run-down English country cottage – all described with a fine eye for detail.
Post GazetteThe captivating story unfold not only in Laura's beloved Pond Lane, somewhere in Hampshire, but flits between there and the chic diplomatic life in Paris .......a charming and entertaining read
Linda of Ordo Paginarum Susie V is incredibly successful at showing how perceptions, romantic or otherwise, can be totally misplaced. She takes the standard 'types' of romance and plays with their failings when they are shifted into reality. This gives the novel a great deal of pace. It also tackles the ambiguity of moral positions, enacting for the reader the disparity between what we know is right for a character whom we have grown to love and what our standard ethical code would encourage us to believe.
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Thanks, too, to numerous Bookcrossers for their encouraging reviews of my novels and/or help in circulating - LizzyBee, Mallory, LindyLouMac, Caff-Caff, Scotsbookie, Helen Palmer/NiceCupofTea, Pammykn, AngelChild and Molyneux (sorry if I have forgotten someone)
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Susie Vereker has lived the diplomatic life and uses this to great effect in both her books. Diplomatic wives seems to have very little life of their own and appear to be there to serve as an adjunct to their other half, smiling sweetly at cocktail parties, organising functions and always, but always being on show... I have enjoyed both Susie's books enormously and am looking forward to the third.
Ex-Libris in the USA. The author's writing was light enough for the story to move quickly and yet keep the plot interesting with lots of twists and turns. (It certainly kept me going back and forth right along with Laura.) I found Pond Lane and Paris to be an enjoyable, satisfying read.
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Sablonneuse in France. 'Yesterday the package from Amazon was delivered and I was hooked. In the first couple of pages I was immediately drawn to the heroine, Laura, and couldn’t put the book down till it was finished. If you like Joanna Trollope you’ll like Susie Vereker...'
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