The Favoured Child Read online

Sweeping, passionate, unique: Meridon completes Philippa Gregory’s bestselling trilogy which began with Wideacre and continued in The Favoured Child.

  ‘In other hands this would be a conventional historical romance. But Ms Gregory uses her historical knowledge of the haves and the have-nots of those times to weave a much more subtle and exciting story.’

  Daily Express

  ISBN 0 00 651463 4

  Wideacre

  Philippa Gregory

  Wideacre Hall, set in the heart of the English countryside, is the ancestral home that Beatrice Lacey loves. But as a woman of the eighteenth century, she has no right of inheritance. Corrupted by a world that mistreats women, she sets out to corrupt others. Sexual and wilful, she believes that the only way to achieve control over Wideacre is through a series of horrible crimes, and no-one escapes the consequences of her need to possess the land.

  ‘The eighteenth-century woman is a neglected creature but, in the figure of her heroine, Philippa Gregory has defined a certain kind of witness…This is a novel written from instinct, not out of calculation, and it shows.’

  PETER ACKROYD, The Times

  ‘For single mindedness, tempestuousness, passion, amorality, sensuality and plain old-fashioned evil, [Beatrice Lacey] knocks Scarlett O’Hara into short cotton socks.’

  Evening Standard

  ISBN 0 00 651461 8

  The Favoured Child

  Philippa Gregory is an established writer and broadcaster for radio and television. She holds a PhD in eighteenth-century literature from the University of Edinburgh. She has been widely praised for her historical novels, including Earthly Joys and A Respectable Trade (which she adapted for BBC Television), as well as her works of contemporary suspense. The Other Boleyn Girl won the Parker Romantic Novel of the Year Award in 2002 and it has recently been adapted for BBC Television. Philippa Gregory lives in the North of England with her family.

  Visit www.PhilippaGregory.com for more information and www.AuthorTracker.co.uk for exclusive updates about Philippa Gregory.

  By the Same Author

  The Wideacre Trilogy

  WIDEACRE

  THE FAVOURED CHILD

  MERIDON

  Historical Novels

  THE WISE WOMAN

  FALLEN SKIES

  A RESPECTABLE TRADE

  EARTHLY JOYS

  VIRGIN EARTH

  Modern Novels

  MRS HARTLEY AND THE GROWTH CENTRE

  PERFECTLY CORRECT

  THE LITTLE HOUSE

  ZELDA’S CUT

  Short Stories

  BREAD AND CHOCOLATE

  The Tudor Court Novels

  THE OTHER BOLEYN GIRL

  THE QUEEN’S FOOL

  THE VIRGIN’S LOVER

  THE CONSTANT PRINCESS

  THE BOLEYN INHERITANCE

  Copyright

  This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

  Harper

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  This paperback edition 2001

  3

  First published in Great Britain by

  Viking 1989

  Copyright © Philippa Gregory Ltd 1989

  The author asserts the moral right to

  be identified as the author of this work

  A catalogue record for this book is

  available from the British Library

  All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

  EPub Edition © 1989 ISBN 9780007370139

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