by Karen Swan
In order to write this book, I needed to become a near-expert on whisky and the distilling industry – I kid you not, I actually read cover-to-cover a hazard assessment report and recommended guidelines on fire detection strategies in the brewing and distilling industries! And it was whilst I was researching the history and locale of Islay that I came across the tragic story of the SS Tuscania disaster. Although I have fictionalized the characters to coalesce with my plot, the actual details of the events of that night are true and I’d like to make a special mention here of two local farmers, Robert Morrison and Duncan Campbell, who rescued the soldiers from the cliffs and brought them into the safety of their homes. They were subsequently awarded OBEs for their actions and it was Duncan’s sister, Anne, who spent the night churning butter in order to feed the survivors. Also, the local police sergeant, Malcolm MacNeill, who had the grim task of trying to identifying the dead that washed up on the shores – he filled eighty-one pages of his notebook recording the harrowing findings of the disaster and he corresponded with every single one of the American mothers who wrote to him. Although, according to his family, he never spoke of it, all the letters and written material were stored in boxes in the loft of his home and only uncovered after his death; they were donated to the local Museum of Islay Life and can be read there still. If ever you are lucky enough to visit Islay, I would urge you to stop in there for a while, but even if these pages are the closest you come, I hope you’ll agree that such bravery and compassion deserves to be acknowledged and remembered, especially as we approach the hundred-year anniversary.
The Islay website www.islayinfo.com was a fantastic source of information about island life, both past and present, and if you’d like to read in further detail about SS Tuscania, I highly recommend William Stevens Prince’s book Crusade and Pilgrimage.
Then, of course, there is my own personal network of clever, fascinating friends who enlighten me with their various wisdoms, in particular, with this book, Isabel Dean on the matter of Socratic questioning, my dinner party mucker WK for introducing me to the frankly brilliant TED lectures where I learnt about non-verbal body language, and TCM for explaining constellations. Thank you, all.
To the entire team at Pan Mac, that thing you’re doing? Please keep doing it! You are such an incredibly slick operation and yet all so thoroughly lovely to boot, it is an utter joy to work with you. I know you’re like an iceberg and I see only the tip of what you do, but please know that every single effort you make on my behalf is deeply appreciated. It is an honour to be in your gang.
Amanda, my agent and all-round Force of Nature, we’ve been working together for ten years now (I know, right? Blink of an eye!), and you have been my shadow on this path, never more than a step away in all that time. Thank you so much for your calm steer. I can’t sail this boat without you.
As for my family, thanks will never be repayment for what you give me and words will never be able to express it, hence the endless hugs and kisses. I love you all madly. Don’t change a thing.
Christmas at
CLARIDGE’S
by
Karen Swan
The best presents can’t be wrapped . . .
This was where her dreams drifted to if she didn’t blot her nights out with drink; this was where her thoughts settled if she didn’t fill her days with chat. She remembered this tiny, remote foreign village on a molecular level and the sight of it soaked into her like water into sand, because this was where her old life had ended and her new one had begun.
Portobello – home to the world-famous street market, Notting Hill Carnival and Clem Alderton. She’s the queen of the scene, the girl everyone wants to be or be with. But beneath the morning-after make-up, Clem is keeping a secret, and when she goes too far one reckless night she endangers everything – her home, her job and even her adored brother’s love.
Portofino – a place of wild beauty and old-school glamour. Clem has been here once before and vowed never to return. But when a handsome stranger asks Clem to restore a neglected villa, it seems like the answer to her problems – if she can just face up to her past.
Claridge’s – at Christmas. Clem is back in London working on a special commission for London’s grandest hotel. But is this really where her heart lies?
Christmas in
THE SNOW
by
Karen Swan
In London, the snow is falling and Christmas is just around the corner – but Allegra Fisher barely has time to notice. She’s pitching for the biggest deal of her career and can’t afford to fail. When she meets attractive stranger Sam Kemp on the plane to the meeting, she can’t afford to lose her focus. But when Allegra finds herself up against Sam for the bid, their passion quickly turns sour.
In Zermatt in the Swiss Alps, a long-lost mountain hut is discovered in the snow after sixty years. The last person expecting to become involved is Allegra – she hasn’t even heard of the woman they found inside. It soon becomes clear the two women are linked and, as she and her best friend Isobel travel out to make sense of the mystery, hearts thaw and dark secrets are uncovered . . .
Christmas on
PRIMROSE
HILL
by
Karen Swan
On Primrose Hill . . .
Twinkling lights brighten London’s Primrose Hill as Christmas nears – but for Nettie Watson, it’s not parties and presents that she wants.
Promises are made
For Nettie, Christmas only serves as a stark reminder of the life she used to have . . . One day she made a promise to never leave home, and so far she’s stayed true to her word.
Promises are broken
Under the glaring spotlight of the world’s media, Nettie is unexpectedly caught up in a twenty-first-century storm . . . Her exploits have made her a global name and attracted the attention of one of the world’s most eligible men – famous front man, Jamie Westlake. But now she has his attention, does she want to keep it?
Christmas
UNDER
THE STARS
by
Karen Swan
Worlds apart. A love without limit.
In the snow-topped mountains of the Canadian Rockies, Meg and Mitch are living their dream. Just weeks away from their wedding, they work and play with Tuck and Lucy, their closest and oldest friends. Meg and Lucy are as close as sisters – much to Meg’s real sister’s dismay – and Tuck and Mitch have successfully turned their passion for snowboarding into a booming business.
But when a polar storm hits, tragedy strikes. Alone in the tiny mountain log cabin she shares with Mitch, Meg desperately tries to radio for help – and it comes from the most unexpected quarter, a lone voice across the airwaves that sees what she cannot.
As the snow melts and the friends try to live with their loss, the relationships Meg thought were forever are buckled by tensions, rivalries and devastating secrets. Nothing is as she thought and only her radio contact understands what it is to be truly alone. As they share confidences in the dark, witnessed only by the stars, Meg feels her future begin to pull away from her past and is forced to consider a strange truth – is it her friends who are the strangers? And a stranger who really knows her best?
The Rome
Affair
by
Karen Swan
A love that can’t be stopped. A secret that can’t be kept.
1974 and Elena Damiani lives a gilded life. Born with extreme wealth and beauty, no door is closed to her, no man can resist her. At twenty-six, she is already onto her third husband when she meets her love match. But he is the one man she can never have, and all the riches in the world can’t change it.
2017 and Francesca Hackett is living la dolce vita in Rome, leading tourist groups around the Eternal City and forgetting the ghosts she left behind in London. When she finds a stolen designer handbag in her dustbin and returns it, she is introduced to the grand neighbour who lives across the piazza – famed socialite and Viscontessa
, Elena. Elena is overjoyed: the bag contains an unopened letter written by her husband on his deathbed, twelve years earlier.
The two women begin to work together on the Viscontessa’s memoirs. As summer unfurls, Elena tells her sensational stories, leaving Cesca in her thrall. But when a priceless diamond ring is found in an ancient tunnel and ascribed to Elena, Cesca begins to suspect a shocking secret at the heart of her new friend’s life . . .
The Christmas Secret
Karen Swan is a Sunday Times Top Five bestselling writer. She is the author of eleven other novels, although she’s been a writer all her life. She previously worked as an editor in the fashion industry but soon realized she was better suited as a novelist with a serious shopping habit. She is married with three children and lives in East Sussex.
Come to find her at www.karenswan.com or
on Instagram @swannywrites, Twitter @KarenSwan1
and Facebook @KarenSwanAuthor.
Also by Karen Swan
Players
Prima Donna
Christmas at Tiffany’s
The Perfect Present
Christmas at Claridge’s
The Summer Without You
Christmas in the Snow
Summer at Tiffany’s
Christmas on Primrose Hill
The Paris Secret
Christmas Under the Stars
The Rome Affair
First published 2017 by Macmillan
This electronic edition published 2017 by Pan Books
an imprint of Pan Macmillan
20 New Wharf Road, London N1 9RR
Associated companies throughout the world
www.panmacmillan.com
ISBN 978-1-5098-3806-6
Copyright © Karen Swan 2017
Hotel in grounds courtesy of Isle of Eriska Hotel, Spa & Island
www.eriska-hotel.co.uk
Woman © Aliaksei Lasevich/Alamy
The right of Karen Swan to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
Pan Macmillan does not have any control over, or any responsibility for, any author or third-party websites referred to in or on this book.
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A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
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