Those Barren Leaves Philip Hensher Sixteen years later Tess overhears

Sixteen years later Tess overhears a couple of hacks mocking a newcomer to the London Bar

Someone in Amethyst is hiding a ghastly secretand it seems that Rue is the person destined to uncover the awful truth

a missionary in Africa

crops grow out of season or not at all

The GREAT ESCAPE tells how more than six hundred men in a German prisoner-of-war camp worked together to achieve an extraordinary break-out

Those Barren Leaves Philip Hensher Sixteen years later Tess overhearsIn a renovated Italian palace set above the blue of the sea, the Junoesque figure of Mrs Aldwinkle moves among her guests. These include a poet who earns his living editing The Rabbit Fancier's Gazette; a popular novelist who records every detail of her affair with another guest as future literary material; an aging philosopher who pursues a wealthy yet mentally disabled heiress and a pair of na ve and charming young lovers. Deliciously satirical,