The Magic Hour

364 pp. When Alexandra goes to stay with her cousins at Knighton Hall she is made to feel the poor relation; the daughters of the house are both beautiful and wealthy. She will not meet the handsome stable lad, Tom O'Brien, until much later. When Alexandra returns home, her father remarries and she is forced to become a maid-of-all-work. Alexandra makes a success of her new life and meets the lovely Bob Atkins. Meanwhile, Tom O’Brien has become impassioned with the beautiful Lady Florazel Compton who introduces him to the sophistications of 1950s London. Sadly, Alexandra's contentment with Bob is short lived and Tom comes back into her life. But the past seems destined to wreck the happiness of the present, as the still beautiful Lady Florazel is determined to re-capture her former love and destroy the magic hour of Tom and Alexandra's meeting. ABOUT THE AUTHOR: "Charlotte Mary Thérèse Bingham (born 29 June 1942) is an English novelist who has written over 30 mainly historical novels and has also written for many television programmes including Upstairs, Downstairs, Play for Today and Robin's Nest. In her television work, she often worked with her husband, Terence Brady."