So magnetically powerful are the words with which Hartley opens his celebrated novel – ‘The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there’ – that they’ve become part of the lexicon. But the story they encompass is a deeply personal one. An invitation for young Leo to join a school friend at Brandham Hall – a world of privilege far removed from his own – for the scorchingly hot summer of 1900 appears innocuous, but Leo soon finds himself drawn into a dangerous, deceitful world of adult intrigue when asked to act as a go-between for two illicit lovers. The tragedy that ensues will reverberate for decades to come.
Romance