Description

The classic bestseller adored by thousands of readers from the author of THIS COULD BE EVERYTHING. Hailed as a ‘modern vintage classic’, The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets was a Richard and Judy Book Club Choice and is in development as a major new TV series.

Set in the 1950s, in an England still recovering from the Second World War, this is the enchanting story of Penelope Wallace and her eccentric family at the start of the rock’n’roll era.

Penelope longs to be grown-up and to fall in love, but various rather inconvenient things keep getting in her way. Like her mother, a stunning but petulant beauty widowed at a tragically early age, her younger brother Inigo, currently incapable of concentrating on anything that isn’t Elvis Presley, a vast but crumbling ancestral home, a severe shortage of cash, and her best friend Charlotte’s sardonic cousin Harry…

*** PRAISE FOR EVA RICE ***

‘Exquisite. Enchanting. Quite possibly perfect. The next One Day/Me Before You’ – Veronica Henry

‘A reason to be cheerful . . . the book I’ve been waiting my whole life for, a perfect 90s period piece about sisters, it’s glam, gorgeous, a little bit melancholic and a lot charming’ – Daisy Buchanan

‘Will break your heart and piece it back together again with wit, warmth and magic. The way Rice weaves together fiction and reality is delicious . . . Nobody captures the exhilaration of first love and teen fandom quite like her’ – Lauren Bravo

This special tenth anniversary edition includes a foreword by Miranda Hart and an exclusive short story from Eva Rice, The Moth Trap, which offers a glimpse into the cocktail party where Penelope’s parents, Archie and Talitha, first met.

Publisher Review

So good we could hardly speak * Observer * A delight of Nancy Mitford-esque trials and tribulations * Vogue * This tenth anniversary edition of Rice's modern classic is a treat for fans of Nancy Mitford and Elizabeth Jane Howard. Stylishly written with a touch of whimsical charm * The Lady *