Adèle And Co. (B-Berry Pleydell) - Softcover

Born Cecil William Mercer into a middle class Victorian family with many Victorian skeletons in the closet, including the conviction for embezzlement from a law firm and subsequent suicide of his great-uncle, Yates' parents somehow scraped together enough money to send him to Harrow. The son of a solicitor, he qualified as a barrister whilst still finding timeto contribute stories to the Windsor Magazine. After the first world war hegave up legal work in favour of writing, which had become his great passion, and completed somethirty books. These rangedfrom light- hearted farce to adventure thrillers. For the former, he created the 'Berry' books which established Yates' reputation as a writer of witty, upper-crust romances. For the latter, he created ther character Richard Chandos, who recounts the adventures of Jonah Mansel, a classic gentleman sleuth. As a consequence of his education and experience, Yates' books feature the genteel life, a nostalgic glimpse at Edwardian decadence and a number of swindling solicitors. In his hey day, and as testament to hisfine writing, Dornford Yates' work was placed in the bestseller list. Indeed, 'Berry' is one of the great comic creations of twentieth century fiction; the 'Chandos' titles also beingsuccessfully adapted for television. Along with Sapper and John Buchan, Yates dominated the adventure book market of the inter war years. Finding the English climate utterly unbearable, Yates chose to live in the French Pyrenees for eighteen years, before moving on to Rhodesia where he died in 1960. 'Mr Yates can be recommended to anyone who thinks the British take themselves too seriously.' - Punch 'We appreciate fine writing when we come across it, and a wit that is ageless united to a courtesy that is extinct'-Cyril Connolly

The annual Parisian idyll of nine wealthy friends from Britain and the Continent is disrupted when a thief laces their liquor and makes off with the ladies' jewels. It's soon apparent that the culprit is Casca de Palk, the only Parisian among them, but having little confidence in the French police, the friends resolve to find the jewels on their own. However, "professional" thieves, outraged by Casca's beginner's luck, are determined to snatch the booty themselves, and in a rollicking car chase from Paris to the Pyrennees, the friends are in breakneck competition with a distasteful "pro" they know only as "Auntie Emma." Less than adequate provisions and accommodations, perils of the autoroute (in this turn-of-the century thriller) and other, more hair-raising, inconveniences occasion the friends' hilarious disparagement, but where amateur thieves are imperiled, amateur sleuths may win outespecially those with the wit and the wherewithal. This latest in the series that includes Berry & Co. and Jonah & Co. also contains that distinctively British blend of dry wit, slapstick and unexpected plot twists that won their author, now deceased, a loyal following at home. February 14
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.