Books by Margaret Kennedy

The family and their home life may be chaotic, but visitors fall into an enchantment, and the claims of respectable life or upbringing fall away. When Sanger dies, his Circus must break up and each find a more conventional way of life.

The germ of the idea for The Feast - Margaret Kennedy's ninth novel and perhaps her most ingenious, first published in 1950 - came to the author in 1937 when she and a social gathering of literary friends were discussing the Medieval Masque of the Seven Deadly Sins. The talk turned excitedly to the notion that a collection of stories might be fashioned from seven different authors, each re-imagining one of the Sins through the medium of a modern-day character. That notion fell away, but something more considerable stayed in Margaret Kennedy's mind over the next ten years, and so she conceived of a story that would gather the Sins all under the roof of a Cornish seaside hotel managed by the unhappy wife of Sloth...Among The Feast's entertaining cast of characters are a clergyman, a gaggle of adolescents and children, a quarter of lovers, and a clutch of frustrated husbands & wives - all serving Kennedy's dark and witty moral fable, which bears out the Biblical adage that many are called but only a very few chosen.

Where Stands A Winged Sentry, taken from the author's war diaries, conveys the tension, frustration and bewilderment of the progression of the Second World War, and the terror of knowing that the worst is to come, but not yet knowing what the worst will be.

Adapted by Margaret Kennedy, from her own novel, with Basil Dean.|10 women, 10 men

Agatha is aware of an intensity, a powerful storm of emotion briefly awakened by a shortlived love affair with her cousin Gerald, that is entirely lacking from the successful marriage on which she is about to embark.

'She is not only a romantic but an anarchist, and she knows the ways of men and women very well indeed' Anita Brookner Hugo Potts is a successful London playwright enjoying his moment of notoriety.

'Margaret Kennedy caught just the taste of the time, mixing a stolid domestic Englishness with 'Continental' bohemians' Irish TimesWilliam and Emily Crowne seem to have it all - they live a life of privilege and glamour in London, the children of a successful poet, attractive, happy, largely blind to the world around them.

Kate is bored of being overlooked by her grown-up children and decides to escape on an Aegean cruise. She ends up in Keritha - a mysterious Greek island all but forgotten by the modern world. But under the spell of this strange and beautiful island both visitors find themselves, and each other, cast in a new light.

The Oracles was the twelfth novel published by Margaret Kennedy (1896-1967) and its titular subjects are the members of a group of provincial intellectuals who happen upon what seems to them a piece of stunningly advanced modern sculpture. Possibly they are not to be blamed for failing to see that it is, in fact, only a commonplace garden chair that has been struck by lightning and twisted radically out of shape. However, under a delusion, The Oracles endeavour to force their fellow townsmen to purchase the 'work' with public money. This comedy of suspense, tension and confusion presents yet another splendid demonstration of Margaret Kennedy's remarkable storytelling gift.

Lucy Carmichael - Margaret Kennedy's tenth novel, first published in 1951 and a work by a mature novelist at the height of her powers - opens on an unforgettably disastrous scene, as the novel's eponymous heroine, preparing to savour her wedding day, is instead jilted at the altar. Lucy Carmichael's recovery from this calamity forms the substance of the story that follows. She takes a job in the rural Lincolnshire village of Ravonsbridge, at an educational institute established by a wealthy manufacturer for the cultural benefit of the local community. This employment will come to offer Lucy a second chance at romance, but it also brings her unexpectedly into contact with a host of remarkable characters who will influence how she sees the world.Lucy Carmichael has a density of realism, full of details and observations that the reader will recognize as truthful, and the rich sense of real people leading real lives, as Margaret Kennedy paints of her characters in three dimensions and gives each one his or her due within the story.

A young Welshman, Evan Jones, arrives in London towards the end of the 1930s. But even Corris has his weak points - and as he struggles to escape the fate he fears, both Mrs Carter Blake and Evan are drawn into his orbit and inexorably swept along with him.

The fool of the title in this charming light-hearted Margaret Kennedy reissue is solid, reliable, put-upon Caryl, one of the innumerable offspring of the eccentric musician Sanger.

Romilly Brandon was heir to a fortune and the handsomest and liveliest young man in the county. Returning years later, Romily finds many surprises - his one-time sweetheart grown old and withered, and in possession of a great secret that shakes him to his core.

Elissa Koebel's memoir is as scandalous and self-absorbed as its writer, but for Hope, it is more than just the latest salacious read. The chapter 'A Summer in Ireland' tells of an episode that Hope remembers well, when the younger, beautiful and unconventional Koebel arrived to disrupt a family holiday.

The problem must lie, she thinks, in her marriage to Alec, and a neat, civilised divorce seems the perfect solution. But talk of divorce sparks interference from family and friends, and soon public opinion tears into the fragile fabric of family life and private desire.