title: Claire
author: Edgerley, Carol
description: Eldest daughter of Marguerite, Claire deeply resents her mother's occupation as midwife at her nursing home in Calcutta. Despite being of French nobility, Marguerite is merely seen as earning a living through "trade." Desperate to escape the social taint, Claire agrees to an arranged marriage with Jack MacLeod, a wealthy businessman.
   Attractive, polished and intelligent, during her engagement the young woman revels in the novelty of mixing with Calcutta's elite. On her wedding night, Claire discovers in the most traumatic manner that her husband is indifferent to her. Unsurprisingly, she feels revolted by sexual intimacy with him.
   On holiday in southern France, she meets Charles Rattigan, impecunious bohemian artist, and younger son of an English duke. Passionately in love with him, can Claire decide to leave her husband and relinquish a cherished social position to live on reduced means with the man she loves?
   Fighting for elusive happiness, Claire is destined to make life-changing mistakes, some far-reaching, some devastatingly grave...
   In a world of instant sound bites and the 24-hour news cycle, it is comforting to sit down to real stories, covering decades and generations, about real people. Beginning with the superb "Marguerite," this sweeping saga continues with "Claire..".and it does not disappoint.
   - "Thom Reece - Editor, Book Marketing Journal & CEO of Hammerkop Publishing