About The Passing Bells
• Paperback: 544 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks; Reissue edition (December 4, 2012)
The guns of August are rumbling throughout Europe in the summer of 1914, but war has not yet touched Abingdon Pryory. Here, at the grand home of the Greville family, the parties, dances, and romances play on. Alexandra Greville embarks on her debutante season while brother Charles remains hopelessly in love with the beautiful, untitled Lydia Foxe, knowing that his father, the Earl of Stanmore, will never approve of the match. Downstairs the new servant, Ivy, struggles to adjust to the routines of the well-oiled household staff, as the arrival of American cousin Martin Rilke, a Chicago newspaperman, causes a stir.
But, ultimately, the Great War will not be denied, as what begins for the high-bred Grevilles as a glorious adventure soon takes its toll—shattering the household’s tranquillity, crumbling class barriers, and bringing its myriad horrors home.
About Circles of Time
• Paperback: 448 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks; Reissue edition (January 2, 2013)
A generation has been lost on the Western Front. The dead have been buried, a harsh peace forged, and the howl of shells replaced by the wail of saxophones as the Jazz Age begins. But ghosts linger—that long-ago golden summer of 1914 tugging at the memory of Martin Rilke and his British cousins, the Grevilles.
From the countess to the chauffeur, the inhabitants of Abingdon Pryory seek to forget the past and adjust their lives to a new era in which old values, social codes, and sexual mores have been irretrievably swept away. Martin Rilke throws himself into reporting, discovering unsettling political currents, as Fenton Wood-Lacy faces exile in faraway army outposts. Back at Abingdon, Charles Greville shows signs of recovery from shell shock and Alexandra is caught up in an unlikely romance.Circles of Time captures the age as these strongly drawn characters experience it, unfolding against England’s most gracious manor house, the steamy nightclubs of London’s Soho, and the despair of Germany caught in the nightmare of anarchy and inflation. Lives are renewed, new loves found, and a future of peace and happiness is glimpsed—for the moment.
About A Future Arrived
• Paperback: 480 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks; Reissue edition (February 5, 2013)
The final installment of the saga of the Grevilles of Abingdon Pryory begins in the early 1930s, as the dizzy gaiety of the Jazz Age comes to a shattering end. What follows is a decade of change and uncertainty, as the younger generation, born during or just after the “war to end all wars,” comes of age.
American writer Martin Rilke has made his journalistic mark, earning worldwide fame with his radio broadcasts, and young Albert Thaxton seeks to follow in his footsteps as a foreign correspondent. Derek Ramsey, born only weeks after his father fell in France, and Colin Ross, a dashing Yankee, leave their schoolboy days behind and enter fighter pilot training as young men. The beautiful Wood-Lacy twins, Jennifer and Victoria, and their passionate younger sister, Kate, strive to forge independent paths, while learning to love—and to let go.
In their heady youth and bittersweet growth to adulthood, they are the future—but the shadows that touched the lives of the generation before are destined to reach out to their own.
About Phillip Rock
Born in Hollywood, California, Phillip Rock lived in England with his family until the blitz of 1940. He spent his adult years in Los Angeles and published three novels before the Passing Bells series: Flickers, The Dead in Guanajuato, andThe Extraordinary Seaman. He died in 2004.
Tour Stops
Thursday, January 10th: No More Grumpy Bookseller – The Passing Bells
Friday, January 11th: The House of the Seven Tails – The Passing Bells
Monday, January 14th: Austenprose – Trilogy preview
Monday, January 14th: Diary of an Eccentric – The Passing Bells
Monday, January 14th: A Reader of Fictions – The Passing Bells
Tuesday, January 15th: Jenn’s Bookshelves – The Passing Bells
Wednesday, January 16th: Unabridged Chick – The Passing Bells
Thursday, January 17th: Broken Teepee – The Passing Bells
Friday, January 18th: Booktalk & More – The Passing Bells
Wednesday, January 30th: Broken Teepee – Circles of Time
Thursday, January 31st: An Unconventional Librarian – The Passing Bells
Friday, February 1st: The House of the Seven Tails – Circles of Time
Monday, February 4th: Diary of an Eccentric – Circles of Time
Tuesday, February 5th: Jenn’s Bookshelves – Circles of Time
Thursday, February 7th: No More Grumpy Bookseller – Cirlces of Time
Friday, February 8th: Booktalk & More – Circles of Time
Saturday, February 9th: Austenprose – The Passing Bells
Tuesday, February 12th: Broken Teepee – A Future Arrived
Wednesday, February 13th: An Unconventional Librarian – Circles of Time
Wednesday, February 20th: Jenn’s Bookshelves – A Future Arrived
Wednesday, February 20th: Unabridged Chick – Circles of Time
Thursday, February 21st: Unabridged Chick – A Future Arrived
Friday, February 22nd: The House of the Seven Tails – A Future Arrived
Monday, February 25th: Diary of an Eccentric – A Future Arrived
Tuesday, February 26th: No More Grumpy Bookseller – A Future Arrived
Wednesday, February 27th: Booktalk & More – A Future Arrived
Thursday, February 28th: An Unconventional Librarian – A Future Arrived
Wednesday, March 6th: A Reader of Fictions – Circles of Time
Wednesday, March 13th: A Reader of Fictions – A Future Arrived
Thursday, March 21st: Kahakai Kitchen – complete trilogy
Friday, March 22nd: My Bookshelf – complete trilogy