Yvonne
Mailbox Monday is a gathering place for readers to share the books that came into their house during the last week.
Be warned that Mailbox Monday can lead to envy, toppling TBR piles and humongous wish lists.
Mailbox Monday, is currently ‘on tour’ and being hosted by a different blogger each month.
Your host for November 2013, is Crystal @ ‘I Totally Paused!’
So why not stop by, leave a link to your own Mailbox Monday post, oh! and don’t forget to leave a comment for Crystal or Bob, after all, we all like to receive them!
This is a great way to plan out your reading week and see what others are currently reading as well… you never know where that next “must read” book will come from!
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This week’s new addition to my ‘virtual’ Kindle shelf, is a real trip down memory lane. Even though I think I may have read this particular story many years ago (it was first published way back in 1974), I have scant recollection of the details and certainly no memory of the ending, so potentially re-reading the book is just going to be pure pleasure.
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‘THE PROPERTY OF A GENTLEMAN’
A poignant, thrilling tale, full of intrigue, mystery and romance.
Shortly after her mother’s death in a Swiss plane crash, Jo Roswell is sent from the London auction house where she works to the remote and mysterious Thirlbeck – stately home of the Earl of Askew.
Jo’s task is to evaluate the house’s contents for a sale, but she soon finds herself drawn into the complex lives of Thirlbeck’s inhabitants, each with their own secrets and desires.
Jo is absorbed by the tragic story of The Spanish Lady, whose young life was cut short at Thirlbeck many centuries before. She also encounters La Española, the brilliant diamond which, according to legend, brings disaster to all who try to possess it. And she is shocked to learn of her own mother’s connection to Thirlbeck.
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CATHERINE GASKIN
Was born in Dundalk Bay, County Louth, Ireland in 1929. When she was only three months old, her parents moved to Australia, settling in Coogee, a suburb of Sydney, where she grew up and studied music at the conservatorium. Her first novel ‘This Other Eden’, was written when she was 15 and published two years later. After her second novel, ‘With Every Year’, was published, she moved to London.
She completed her best known work, ‘Sara Dane’, on her 25th birthday in 1954, and it was published in 1955. It sold more than 2 million copies, was translated into a number of other languages, and was made into a television mini-series in Australia in 1982.
Catherine moved to Manhattan for ten years, after marrying a United States citizen. She then moved to the Virgin Islands, then in 1967 to Ireland, where she became an Irish citizen. She also lived on the Isle of Man. Her last novel was ‘The Charmed Circle’ in 1988. Following the death of her husband, she then returned to Sydney, where she died in September 2009, aged 80.
During her lifetime Catherine Gaskin’s books sold over 40 million copies worldwide, and she was known as “The Queen of Storytellers” and “The Girl with the Golden Pen.”
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Catherine Gaskin left her literary estate to The Society of Authors, who have licensed Corazon Books to publish this ebook edition. There is also a website and a reader competition to tie in with publication, which can be found at www.thepropertyofagentleman.com and it is they who have kindly contacted me with this fantastic opportunity, to reconnect with an author who, during her lifetime sold over 40 million copies worldwide, and came to be known as “The Queen of Storytellers” and “The Girl with the Golden Pen.”
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I can’t wait to discover all your own great new finds this week … so please stop by and share your link
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The Property of a Gentleman sounds right up my alley. It sounds interesting. Impressive that the authors first novel was published at just 17 years old!
I checked out Corazon Books as Corazon means heart in Spanish. That’s a nice website.
Happy reading and enjoy your week 🙂
Hi Naida,
Duh! I never even thought about checking the meaning of the name Corazon, although it is pretty self explanatory in the company tagline ‘Great Stories With Heart’ …. at least it is once you know!!
Thanks for that information, I can always rely on you for interesting comments and for taking the time to check out a post, I appreciate it.
Hopefully Corazon will be offered the opportunity to convert more of Catherine Gaskin’s work into e-books for publishing, as she is certainly considered to be one of the greatest exponents of the romantic fiction genre, for her time.
Have a great week and Happy Thanksgiving, if we don’t get to speak before then.
Isn’t it lovely to revisit books from years past? Plus, that virtual Kindle shelf never fills!
Hi Sam,
I generally don’t like to re-read books, however, as only the title and synopsis of this book sound familiar and I can’t recall anything else about it, it will be a delight to revisit a work by this outstanding author of the romantic mystery.
The Kindle shelf that never fills up is a great idea, until the odd occasions when I actually take notice of just how many pages of books I have unread. I just dread the day when the Kindle crashes and all is lost … tears before bedtime will be a distinct possibility!
Thanks for stopping by, I always enjoy your visits.
Yvonne, I hope you love it just as much the second time. I recently picked up a Kindle book of a book I loved as a young teen: Mrs. Mike. I can’t wait to read it a second time 🙂
Hi Mary,
I checked out ‘Mrs. Mike’ and it sounds like a lovely story. I like the way the co-authors were able to write separate sections of the story, then critique each others work, before joining all the sections together to make up the finished story. There needs to be a very special relationship to make that happen, don’t you think?
Thanks for stopping by and have a great week.
Love the sound of this one…I have never read this author, but now I want to find out more. Enjoy! Here’s MY WEEKLY SUNDAY/MONDAY UPDATES
Hi Laurel-Rain,
Catherine Gaskin was a well loved and reknowned exponent of writing in the romantic mystery genre, with her career spanning some sixty odd years.
Of course, her writing style is very much indicitive of the era in which the book was written, in the case of ‘The Property Of A Gentleman’, the early 1970’s, so I am going to have to take that into account when reading the story.
Thanks for stopping by, I always appreciate your comments.
I have never heard of this author, but this book sounds VERY good.
ENJOY your week and your books.
Elizabeth
Silver’s Reviews
My Mailbox Monday
Hi Elizabeth,
Re-reading a book which was originally written almost 30 years ago, is going to be both a pleasure and a pain.
A pleasure in that Catherine Gaskin is such a reknowned author of her generation that I know the book is going to be well written. The pain of thinking back to the rather stilted and trite style in which romance novels were written at that time, compared to the very open and inclusive format of today.
‘Property Of a Gentleman’ is not quite old enough to be historical romance, yet a little too aged to be called contemporary!
Thanks for visiting today and have a Very Happy Thanksgiving if we don’t speak again before then.
You’ve again posted a new to me author/book! It sounds interesting.
Hi Vicki,
As Catherine Gaskin was a British author, who wrote only up until the late 1980’s, it is little surprise that you haven’t come across her work before.
These days, such is the power of communication, there are no barriers to accessing books from writers and authors anywhere in the world, at the ‘drop of a hat’.
It is that which makes blogging so much fun for me, as I have discovered some fantastic new books and authors, who would otherwise probably have remained unknown to me, whilst I would have continued to read only the regular circle of authors with whom I had been brought up.
I am sure that you would enjoy Catherine’s books and I very much hope that The Society Of Authors, will grant Corazon Books license to publish more of her titles in the future.
Thanks for stopping by and Happy Thanksgiving if we don’t get to speak again before then.
Never heard of this one, sounds interesting.
http://tributebooksmama.blogspot.com/2013/11/mailbox-monday_25.html
Hi Mary Ann,
This was a must read as soon as I opened the link and started to read the synopsis. So much of it sounded familiar and yet there are such big gaps in my memory of the storyline and its conclusion, that it just has to be revisited.
Thanks for stopping by, have a great week.
Over 40 million copies worldwide, that is impressive.
An author my grandmother loved though I never could see the appeal myself. Given that I’m now a more mature reader myself perhaps I’ll give some of her books a try.
Hi Tracy,
I have to admit that I did read a couple of her books back in my teenage days, a by-product of being let loose in the hitherto secret world of the adult library.
Also, when you consider that her first book was written age 15 and published by the time she was 17, that is also quite impressive statistics.
I am fully expecting the rather staid and stilted way in which the language is couched, compared to today’s no holds barred dialogue we have come to expect.
Thanks for stopping by, I always value your comments.