The Roman Catholic Russian ancestors of Aunt Irene, the central character in Alice Thomas Ellis's new vel, were persecuted and forced to flee to the Ukraine, Lithuania, Austria or as the story-tellers would have it, across 27 lands and 30 countries until they came to the 27th Kingdom. For the good, kind and infinitely friendly Aunt Irene, her handsome but wicked nephew, Kyril, and Focus, a cat of alarming intelligence, this is Dancing Master House, a minute dwelling in the Chelsea. Two gossips, Mrs. O'Conr and Mrs. Mason, one dead common with criminal connections, the other an impoverished lady of the upper classes, clean for and take care of the needs of Aunt Irene and Kyril. From Wales, Irene's sister, the Mother Superior, sends Valentine, a beautiful, young West Indian postulant, ostensibly to test her vocation but really because of the embarrassing discovery that Valentine has miraculous powers. The story runs between angels and demons in a style which epitomizes the refreshing eccentricities of English humor.
Product Identifiers
Publisher
Moyer BELL Ltd ,U.S.
ISBN-10
1559213930
ISBN-13
9781559213936
eBay Product ID (ePID)
189739689
Product Key Features
Author
Alice Thomas Ellis
Format
Paperback
Language
English
Topic
General & Literary Fiction
Additional Product Features
Place of Publication
Wakefield
Author Biography
Alice Thomas Ellis was been short-listed for the Booker prize for this novel. She is the author of A Welsh Childhood (autobiography), Fairy Tales and several other novels including The Summerhouse Trilogy, made into a movie starring Jeanne Moreau and Joan Plowright.