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Moments of Knowing
Ann Bridge, besides being a famous author, was also, in her own words, “a person who frequently has, when awake, inexplicable 'knowings' of events taking place at a distance: and, in dreams, am informed, sometimes uncomfortably, of facts of which I can have no knowledge by normal means”. In this remarkable book, part memoir, part a personal statement, she wrote of a number of such moments taken from a varied and distinguished career, and ranging from a startling premonition of a cypher-breaking job in the Admiralty during World War I to a somewhat macabre later episode concerned with the Duchess of Windsor. Moments of Knowing can be read for its appealing autobiographical qualities or for the steady and careful light its author throws on areas of experience of which few people may have first-hand knowledge.
A Place to Stand
First published in 1953, A Place To Stand is set in Budapest in the spring of 1941, Hope - a spoilt but attractive society girl and daughter of a leading American business man - finds herself playing the lead in a dangerous and most unexpected affair of underground intrigue, through the machinations of her journalist fiancé. During the course of her activities she falls in love with a Polish refugee, and at the moment when Germany invades Hungary, she is already deeply involved - both emotionally and politically. Bridge, herself an eye witness of these events, tells in moving and graphic terms the terrible story of Germany's 'protective' invasion; although it is presented in the form of an imaginative episode, the historical significance and accuracy are all too tragically evident. This admirable novel is at once a charming love story in the shadow of fear and disruption, a subtle and intimate portrayal of human beings in a time of crisis, and a most exciting narrative, set against the enchanting background of Budapest.
Four-Part Setting
Fleeing from her failed marriage, Rose Pelham seeks sanctuary in Peking, China, with her cousins, Anastasia and Antony Lydiard. The romantic attentions of Captain Hargreaves are a welcome distraction from her woes, but in the society of Anglicised 1920's Peking, it is hard for such relationships not to draw notice and create scandal. A long trek to the 'Mountain of a Hundred Flowers' offers a chance to escape prying eyes, but Rose's intellectual cousins cannot stop Captain Hargreaves from joining them, along with the most disagreeable Roy Hellier. The trip is fraught with peril, as the 'T'ao-Pings' or 'masterless soldiers' – cut loose from the feudal Chinese armies – are roaming the coun...
The Tightening String
This novel records the lives of a group of English diplomats in Budapest from the Spring of 1940, up to the entry of the Germans which compels them to leave in Easter 1941. Crossing the Russian frontier en route for Moscow and the U.S.A., an episode at once dramatic and distinctly comic, sees the characters' main pre-occupation as less about their own predicament than the desperate and sustained endeavour to send food and clothing to the 44,000 British prisoners-of-war in Germany, during those first months when no Red Cross Parcels from England reached the camps. A touching love-story, a personal tragedy, and a disconcerting glimpse of treachery are skilfully interwoven in this revealing book.
Singing Waters
Ann Bridge takes the little-known country of Albania for her background recreating the primitive grandeur of the country. The Albanian way of life demonstrates a noble standard of values that is rapidly disappearing under the pressure of modern materialism. Our protagonist is an unhappy and disillusioned young widow who travels to Albania as the result of a chance encounter on the Istanbul express. A fellow passenger tells her that there she will find a life that contains something far more satisfying than the restless gaiety of her cosmopolitan clique. Later, living in the feudal household of an Albanian prince, absorbing an atmosphere of immemorial dignity, and enjoying the friendship of two remarkable women – one a mature and cultured English writer, the other a wise old American doctor – she comes to understand what he had meant. And when, for the second time, she is faced with a tragic outcome to hopes of happiness in love, she is able to find solace among the granite heights and singing waters of Albania.
The Dark Moment
Feride and Nilüfer lead a elegant and comfortable life in Turkish aristocratic society until their lives are turned upside down by Atatürk's fight for independence after WWI. Finding strength and courage they didn't know they had, the women become pioneers for the freedom of their countrywomen. When their husbands leave to join general Atatürk in the fight for a new Turkey, Feride and Nilüfer dress in disguises and follow them. Through rain and mud and past glittering snowy peaks, the inexperienced women are plunged into hardships they had never dreamed of - living with the roar of Greek guns, fearing the horrors of military disaster. The magnetic Atatürk, having led his forces victoriously against the Greeks, proceeded to cajole and bully his people into trading the fez for hats and adopting a new alphabet. Almost overnight, Atatürk- with the help of courageous women like Feride – turned Turkey into a 20th-century nation. "Absorbing reading...There's color in the rich tapestry of Turkish custom and thought; there are vivid scenes and live characters." - Kirkus
Illyrian Spring
As a wife and mother of three, Lady Kilmichael felt her task in the home was finished. As the artist Grace Stanway, she was well-known and successful in her own right. The question now was whether her home or her career would predominate.
Frontier Passage
A story of Spain and its Civil War, and a pair of star-crossed lovers. This new novel has many virtues, all of them attractive -- picturesque montage, an appealing cast, substantial-and often exciting -- action, and her usual quality writing. - Kirkus
The Numbered Account
Julia Probyn, like most people, knew very little about anonymous numbered accounts in Swiss Banks. Until her cousin, Colin Munro, asked her to look into the matter of one containing a fortune, for his fiancée Aglaia Armitage, left to her by her Greek grandfather. Then Julia learned a great deal. But besides bonds and debentures, old Mr. Thalassides, proved to have left documents of vital interest to the British Secret Service, and to other Powers as well, in the vault with them. When these disappear, the hunt begins... Ann Bridge brings her characteristic wit, suspense and sense of adventure to the third book in the Julia Probyn series.
Enchanter's Nightshade
In Enchanter's Nightshade, first published in 1937, Bridge presents her reader with a "period piece" of Italian provincial society and distributes our sympathies over a surprising range of characters, several of whom touch on individual tragedies. The lovely "Enchantress" in the late thirties; the little English governess in the early twenties, full of Oxford enthusiasms; the ardent youth, Giulio; Marietta, that delightful child, puzzling over the problems into which she is plunged by the disaster which overtakes her beloved English instructress; the old Marchesa, whose hundredth birthday looms all through the book; above all perhaps the wise, patient Swiss governess - all these in turn claim our affection or our pity. Ann Bridge shows here an intensity of feeling and a dramatic power which may come as a surprise after the gentle restraint of her earlier books. But for all the characters who are capable of forging happiness for themselves, the doors open, at the end, on possibilities of future contentment.
