The Winter House: A sweeping drama of love and friendship
Three women must find their way through a world changed by war…
Set against a backdrop of London, Paris and the unchanging English countryside, The Winter House by Judith Lennox is a novel of rare warmth and beauty. Perfect for fans of Rachel Hore and Santa Montefiore.
‘A novel of passion and intrigue, this is an enjoyable read populated by believable characters’ – Candis
For three girls growing up in the Fens in the tumultuous years between the First and Second World Wars, the Winter House was a special place of refuge and friendship.
Winter or summer, they would meet at the old wooden house by the waterside to confide all the secrets and heartaches of childhood and adolescence. There was Robin, idealistic and clever, destined for Cambridge; Maia, the most beautiful and ambitious of the three, looking for a rich husband; and quiet Helen, living under the seemingly benevolent tyranny of her widower father, the local vicar. Adulthood separates the three girls, and Robin, abandoning ideas of university, goes to London to work amongst the poor, meeting there her first great love, the handsome but brittle Francis. Maia’s ideal marriage to a wealthy man ends in tragedy and Helen, meanwhile, kept in near-imprisonment by her obsessively protective father, has her very sanity threatened. Amid political and social upheaval, these three women must find their way in a world changed for ever.
What readers are saying about The Winter House:
‘She writes so beautifully and nostalgically… Judith Lennox is truly a great writer’
‘[Judith Lennox’s] characters are marvellously drawn, and their lives draw the reader totally into the story’
‘Couldn’t put it down’
ASIN : B00V3MY140
Publisher : Review
Accessibility : Learn more
Publication date : April 9, 2015
Language : English
File size : 3.3 MB
Screen Reader : Supported
Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
X-Ray : Enabled
Word Wise : Enabled
Print length : 494 pages
ISBN-13 : 978-1472224064
Page Flip : Enabled
Best Sellers Rank: #2,520,689 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store) #8,186 in Women’s Historical Fiction #14,952 in Family Life Fiction (Kindle Store) #21,877 in Women’s Domestic Life Fiction
Customer Reviews: 4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars (1,180) var dpAcrHasRegisteredArcLinkClickAction; P.when(‘A’, ‘ready’).execute(function(A) { if (dpAcrHasRegisteredArcLinkClickAction !== true) { dpAcrHasRegisteredArcLinkClickAction = true; A.declarative( ‘acrLink-click-metrics’, ‘click’, { “allowLinkDefault”: true }, function (event) { if (window.ue) { ue.count(“acrLinkClickCount”, (ue.count(“acrLinkClickCount”) || 0) + 1); } } ); } }); P.when(‘A’, ‘cf’).execute(function(A) { A.declarative(‘acrStarsLink-click-metrics’, ‘click’, { “allowLinkDefault” : true }, function(event){ if(window.ue) { ue.count(“acrStarsLinkWithPopoverClickCount”, (ue.count(“acrStarsLinkWithPopoverClickCount”) || 0) + 1); } }); });
$3.99
Three women must find their way through a world changed by war…
Set against a backdrop of London, Paris and the unchanging English countryside, The Winter House by Judith Lennox is a novel of rare warmth and beauty. Perfect for fans of Rachel Hore and Santa Montefiore.
‘A novel of passion and intrigue, this is an enjoyable read populated by believable characters’ – Candis
For three girls growing up in the Fens in the tumultuous years between the First and Second World Wars, the Winter House was a special place of refuge and friendship.
Winter or summer, they would meet at the old wooden house by the waterside to confide all the secrets and heartaches of childhood and adolescence. There was Robin, idealistic and clever, destined for Cambridge; Maia, the most beautiful and ambitious of the three, looking for a rich husband; and quiet Helen, living under the seemingly benevolent tyranny of her widower father, the local vicar. Adulthood separates the three girls, and Robin, abandoning ideas of university, goes to London to work amongst the poor, meeting there her first great love, the handsome but brittle Francis. Maia’s ideal marriage to a wealthy man ends in tragedy and Helen, meanwhile, kept in near-imprisonment by her obsessively protective father, has her very sanity threatened. Amid political and social upheaval, these three women must find their way in a world changed for ever.
What readers are saying about The Winter House:
‘She writes so beautifully and nostalgically… Judith Lennox is truly a great writer’
‘[Judith Lennox’s] characters are marvellously drawn, and their lives draw the reader totally into the story’
‘Couldn’t put it down’
ASIN : B00V3MY140
Publisher : Review
Accessibility : Learn more
Publication date : April 9, 2015
Language : English
File size : 3.3 MB
Screen Reader : Supported
Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
X-Ray : Enabled
Word Wise : Enabled
Print length : 494 pages
ISBN-13 : 978-1472224064
Page Flip : Enabled
Best Sellers Rank: #2,520,689 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store) #8,186 in Women’s Historical Fiction #14,952 in Family Life Fiction (Kindle Store) #21,877 in Women’s Domestic Life Fiction
Customer Reviews: 4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars (1,180) var dpAcrHasRegisteredArcLinkClickAction; P.when(‘A’, ‘ready’).execute(function(A) { if (dpAcrHasRegisteredArcLinkClickAction !== true) { dpAcrHasRegisteredArcLinkClickAction = true; A.declarative( ‘acrLink-click-metrics’, ‘click’, { “allowLinkDefault”: true }, function (event) { if (window.ue) { ue.count(“acrLinkClickCount”, (ue.count(“acrLinkClickCount”) || 0) + 1); } } ); } }); P.when(‘A’, ‘cf’).execute(function(A) { A.declarative(‘acrStarsLink-click-metrics’, ‘click’, { “allowLinkDefault” : true }, function(event){ if(window.ue) { ue.count(“acrStarsLinkWithPopoverClickCount”, (ue.count(“acrStarsLinkWithPopoverClickCount”) || 0) + 1); } }); });
🌹ROSE🌷 –
THE WINTER HOUSE…JUDITH LENNOX…SHE DOES IT AGAIN!
You meet Robin, Helen and Maia at the end of the first WW who have great aspirations. They are naive about life and how their dreams will unfold but make a pact to get together to celebrate milestones.Robin is the only daughter. One brother was killed in WW1 and the other was injured. Robin has no desire to see the country engage in another war.Helen is the daughter of a pastor. Helen’s mother passed away while young and was raised by her father who doesn’t want Helen to live life. He thinks of her as his little girl. His relationship with his daughter is creepy! Every step of the way, he sabotages her jobs, friendships and life in general except assisting him. Helen wants her own family.Maia – beautiful impetuous one and wants security and wealth!All three face challenges with world events as they work towards their goals.Judith Lennox never disappoints in her novels! Love every last book that she was written!
Lizzy C –
Three girls, three dreams and an epic story
The Winter House opens with three friends, Robin, Helen and Maia, who, at the end of the First World War and on the verge of adulthood, vow to celebrate the great milestones of their lives: their first jobs, travelling abroad, losing their virginity. Robin is a pacifist from a progressive family whose two brothers fought in the war, one never returning, the other coming home with shell shock. Helen is the only child and dutiful daughter of the widowed local rector, a man who believes himself a cut above the rural labourers and artisans who inhabit the run-down cottages of their marsh-surrounded village. Maia is the beauty of the trio, a girl brought up to expect the finer things in life only to be abandoned by her profligate father in the worst possible way.Each girl has a dream. Robin dreams of escaping the academic fate her father has planned for her and moving to London to become involved in activist politics, to do something that makes a difference in the world. Helen dreams of having a home and family. Maia wants the security of wealth that she knew as a child, and is prepared to do what it takes to get it.As the girls become women and pursue their dreams, each has to make choices and compromises, face hardships which test their endurance – and their friendship. The adolescent vow of celebrating milestones isn’t forgotten, but it becomes representative of the naivety – if not always innocence – of their youthful hopes, as well as the differences in their personalities, upbringing and values.The story covers the period of the aftermath of the First World War, through the twenties and into the Great Depression and the Spanish Civil War, and ends with Europe on the brink of another war. These great events aren’t just a backdrop to the story; they play a significant part in Robin’s and Maia’s lives, while Helen’s eventual questioning of her faith is indicative of a broader wave of secularism that reflects the changing values of this time.The Winter House is an interesting and engrossing story, easy to read and, in parts, moving. It makes me wonder why I don’t read more historical sagas.
Note –
Interesting story of 3 friends during the ’30s! Highly recommended!
Interesting novel of 3 friends. All have fascinating lives and some times weird beliefs. This was well worth my time and money. It gives a different perspective to the years prior to WWII. It also explains some of the class differences in England. It shows how this difference often makes people make some really faulty decisions. Highly recommended. I will read other books now by this author. This novel is an A++++
B C Booklover –
another good read
Love her books…this was another worth reading. Many twists and turns with characters I wanted to know more about.Judith Lennox knows how to write a story that will keep you hooked until the end. I would recommend it!
Margaret –
Five Stars
Another absorbing read by Judith Lennox
Bob Wickens –
Boring
Incredibly long and boring
Beverlyd –
Good story.
I have enjoyed all of Judith Lennox’s book. This isn’t my favorite but I did enjoy reading it.
Sabine Taylor –
Unbelievably sweeping- A saga in the confusions of the 30’s
From the first page this book had an expectional dynamic I have rarely experienced before. The three female heroins , Robin who wants to change the world, experience and gets involved with the problems of London’s worker families, the poverty and most at all the political lot of England and Europe. Maia, pretty and ambitious, carried out to marry a wealthy man, after her father commited suicide. Young and naive, how she called herself at the end of the story, she actually married a wealthy man, but everything she hoped to get, most at all to be happy in life, were refused and life had an totally different way for her. Last but not least there is Helen, a preacher’s daughter who lives togther with her father without her mother who died really young. Her father gets by to tie her at the bleak landscape of the fens over years, and it seems like all her wishes to have a small house, a husband and many children would be forever deleted.These three friends in the time before the World War II went her ways, mostly unexpected ones through love, life and career into the dreadful battles between the Republicans and Fascists in Spain 1936/1937 where Robin follows her boyfriend and brother that both fighted on the front as part of the International Brigades against the Nationalists and Robin helped in military hospitals. Their wishes and hopes changed, beliefs and fears accompanied them trough an incredible life and the secrets they swore to share and celebrate, like their first journey abroad,drifted them apart and brought them even closer together. But in that whole dismal time Judith Lennox still finds a chance to create an great emotional romantic lovestory.For me this novel is a must have read, it changed some of my opinions and confronted me with the fears and desires in a nearly forgotten time. Between London, Cambridge, Ely, Paris, Munich and Madrid this novel provided a great basis for a bestseller.
Annie A. –
I just love all books by this author and have recommended many to friends. I read The Winter House over a weekend as I enjoyed all the characters involved and the individual stories of their hopes for the future and how their lives developed. A wonderful book, so descriptive and varied; covering many aspects of life. Obviously a tremendous amount of research has been involved in writing this book as is clearly showed in the accurate details. Well done Judith.
margaret cox –
This book was so unusual loved the story line did not know what was going to happen in this family next enjoyed the read
gerard weigand –
As usual a fantastic book by Judith Lennox
Denise Winterton –
Nothing I enjoyed it all.
Circlestones Books Blog –
“In the warm spring of 1928 they lounged on the cushions on the verandah of the winter house, and looked forward to freedom.” (Quotation pos. 152)Content:Robin, Helen and Maia are childhood-friends. Yet, they want different things from life. The three of them have to learn during these years during the twenties and thirties of the last century in England, that it is almost impossible for women to lead an independent life, as different there own choices might be. However, they do not know, that the years still to come will ask them decisions that might cost their souls, their self-esteem and probably the most precious thing, their life.Theme and genreThis novel tales place in England between the two World Wars and is about growing up in a time far away from gender equality. Main topics are friendship, dreams for the future, love, loss and important decisions.CharactersA different choice of main characters, very well developed, maybe not always believable and sometimes quite annoying in their behavior.Content and writingThe story is told in four parts, each part leading over a certain period of the years between 1918 and 1938. We follow the main characters in alternating chapters, but without interruptions of a linear storyline. Open questions and own reflections during reading about missing gaps are solved near the end of the story. The language is enjoyable to read and gives a vivid picture of life in the period in which the novel takes place.ConclusionA gripping story about three women, growing up in rural England in the years between the two World Wars, searching for a place for their dreams and hopes in a world still dominated by men.