The Lorimer Line

‘FORGET THE THORN BIRDS… THIS ROMPING HISTORICAL EPIC IS FLUENT AND ENTERTAINING’ Lancashire Evening Post

The dramatic and compelling story of a rich and powerful family in Victorian England.

It is 1877 and Margaret Lorimer lives a gilded existence as the daughter of one of Bristol’s most powerful men, banker John Junius Lorimer.

But Margaret wants more than the constricting life of a dutiful Victorian daughter. She is intelligent, ambitious and uninterested in the luxury provided by her family’s wealth.

When she falls in love with a comparatively humble young Scot, her father’s acceptance of the union makes her believe that at last she is in control of her own destiny.

Unknown to Margaret, however, behind the façade of her father’s respectability lie secrets which threaten both his reputation and his fortune.

And when Margaret and her fiancé become unsuspecting pawns in her father’s struggle to avert disaster, the Lorimers’ luck appears to have finally run out.

If Margaret is to ever have the independent and fulfilling life she dreams of, she must make it happen by herself.

With the prejudices of the age and the expectations of her family against her, she will need extraordinary courage to succeed…

The Lorimer Line is a sparkling and enthralling novel and the first in a delightful and compelling series which chronicles the lives and fortunes of the Lorimer family.

Readers love Anne Melville:

‘Fast and meaty… with pain and grief fairly balanced with hope and joy in roughly equal proportions’ British Book News

‘Exciting, the characters lively and the sense of period meticulous’ Irish Times

‘The book leaves a century of scope ahead for saga addicts’ Books

‘There are moments in life when there is nothing like a good juicy saga read and Anne Melville is a most competent and engaging mistress of the craft’ Oxford Today

‘Engaging and readable’Financial Times

‘The story is exciting, the characters lively and the sense of period meticulous’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

‘Powerful stuff for those who like family intrigues’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

‘A novel of character and great compassion’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

‘Anne Melville has the ability to write about history with an unobtrusive knowledge, while keeping the action going and adding romance that doesn’t cloy’⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

***

Anne Melville is a pseudonym of Margaret Potter, the daughter of the author and lecturer Bernard Newman and the wife of Jeremy Potter, novelist and historian. She was educated at Harrow County School for girls and gained a BA and MA from St. Hugh’s College, Oxford. Before writing, she worked a variety of jobs including teaching in Egypt, editing a children’s magazine in London, and advising the Citizen’s Advice Bureau in Twickenham. She published her first novel as Margaret Newman, a mystery novel entitled Murder to Music. Newman continued publishing novels until her death in 1998, under a variety of pseudonyms.