Dark Angel

by Sally Beauman

Overview

A tale of passion, betrayal, and dark family secrets—from the English countryside of 1910 to 1980s New York—by the #1 New York Times–bestselling author.
 On an April night in 1910, just after the appearance of Halley’s comet, a man dies violently at an English manor called Winterscombe. More than half a century later, Victoria Cavendish tries to root out the secrets that have haunted three generations of her family. With the aid of a timeworn journal, she begins an unconventional voyage into the secrets of the past. As Victoria moves closer to the truth of what happened on that fateful night long ago, she uncovers a shocking saga of sex, love, and betrayal.
Traveling through two world wars and beyond, peopled by a cast of unforgettable characters, Dark Angel is a mesmerizing novel about love and redemption.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781480444744
Publisher:	Open Road Media
Publication date:	09/24/2013
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	800
File size:	4 MB

About the Author

Sally Beauman was born in Devon, England, and is a graduate of Cambridge University. She began her career as a critic and writer for New York magazine and continued to write for leading periodicals in the US and the UK after returning to England. In 1970, she became the first recipient of the Catherine Pakenham Award for journalism, and at the age of twenty-four, was appointed editor of Queen magazine. Beauman wrote for the New Yorker, the Sunday Times, and Telegraph Magazine, where she was arts editor.

Her novels, which include the New York Times–bestselling sensation Destiny, have been translated into over twenty languages and are bestsellers worldwide. In addition to her works of fiction, Beauman published two nonfiction books based on the history and work of the Royal Shakespeare Company: The Royal Shakespeare Company’s Centenary Production of Henry V (edited by Beauman, with a foreword by His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh, 1976), and The Royal Shakespeare Company: A History of Ten Decades (1982).

Beauman passed away in 2016 at the age of seventy-one.
Sally Beauman was born in Devon, England, and is a graduate of Cambridge University. She began her career as a critic and writer for New York magazine and continued to write for leading periodicals in the US and the UK after returning to England. In 1970, she became the first recipient of the Catherine Pakenham Award for journalism, and at the age of twenty-four, was appointed editor of Queen magazine. Beauman has written for the New Yorker, the Sunday Times, and Telegraph Magazine, where she was arts editor.

Her novels, which include the New York Times–bestselling sensation Destiny, have been translated into over twenty languages and are bestsellers worldwide. In addition to her works of fiction, Beauman has published two nonfiction books based on the history and work of the Royal Shakespeare Company: The Royal Shakespeare Company’s Centenary Production of Henry V (edited by Beauman, with a foreword by His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh, 1976), and The Royal Shakespeare Company: A History of Ten Decades (1982).

Sally Beauman is married to the actor Alan Howard. They divide their time between London and a remote island in the Hebrides. They have one son and two grandchildren.

Hometown:

London, England

Date of Birth:

July 25, 1944

Place of Birth:

Torquay, Devon, England

Education:

B.A. in English Literature, Hons Cantab, 1966; M. A., Hons Cantab, 1969

Editorial Reviews

Beauman's eagerly awaited second novel, not so fiery and beguiling as her bestselling Destiny , seeks to deal thoughtfully with the entwined issues of social class and the kind of exploitative, even perverse sexuality that can invade and destroy a family. What weakens this ambitious, potentially gripping scheme is the author's tendency to write of decadence in repetitive and fatiguing prose. Spanning the period from 1910 to the '80s, the narrative moves between Winterscombe, the English country manor where the fashionable gather for shooting and ``leisured adultery,'' and the New York City/Hamptons scene of aging eccentric gays, aesthetes and interior decorators. In 1968 Victoria Cavendish, 38, learns from a Hindu seer that she must choose between two women--her long-dead mother, Jane, a WW I nurse in France, and Constance, her seductively dangerous godmother, who wormed her way into the family and used her marriage to powerful financier Montague Stern to undermine it. Both women had vied for the love of Victoria's father, Acland. Both were at Winterscombe when Constance's promiscuous father, Shawcross, died horribly mangled in a mantrap--an illegal device to stop poachers. In search of her family's past, Victoria reads tattered old journals that yield dark secrets--incest, fornication, betrayal, suicide, possibly murder--meanwhile coming to grips with ``deadly'' Constance. Although she herself is curiously passive and listless, Victoria's own love story gathers gradual momentum, despite Constance's opposition, when she rediscovers her childhood sweetheart. 200,000 first printing; $200,000 ad/promo; Literary Guild main selection. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Its length is the only drawback to this novel about an English family in the years between the appearances of Halley's Comet (1910-86). Beauman ( Destiny) has woven a convoluted web of relationships, quarrels, seduction, incest, betrayals, and possible murder. Unraveling this tangle is Victoria Cavendish, whose enigmatic godmother, Constance Shawcross, is always at the center. Constance, who may be a victim or the villain, raised Victoria in New York after her parents' death. The focus repeatedly returns to a night in April 1910 when Constance's father was killed at the Cavendish estate. The circumstances of his death and of various individuals' roles in it are part of the suspense maintained to the end. The people, places, and scenes crowding these pages are memorably and convincingly depicted. A note of warning: Some segments are graphic and involve sex with children. Beauman's second novel is sure to be requested. Highly recommended. Literary Guild main selection; previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 4/1/90.-- Ellen Kaye Stoppel, Drake Univ. Law Lib., Des Moines

Library Journal