down. After a number of affaires de coeur with attractive married ladies, he is not in the least attracted to debutantes and so avoids their pushy mothers like the plague. As he was leaving a hospital after visiting his grandmother, a young girl, thinking that his carriage was for hire, jumps in and orders him to drive away quickly. Lord Springdale is obviously surprised and, when he looks at her, he realises that she is very beautiful. After agreeing to take her to where she wants to go, he learns that Mellina is being forced into marriage by her immensely rich father to a man he has chosen for her and who she utterly dislikes and despises. Because they both hate being pushed into marriage to someone who only wants him for his title and her for her father’s vast fortune, they agree to run away on his superb yacht disguised as brother and sister. They set out confidently in the hope that they will each find their ideal partner on this voyage and counter the pressures that they are suffering from at home. They call at Gibraltar, Marseilles and then sail across the Mediterranean to Tunisia. It is during their visit to the ancient Colosseum of El Djem in Tunisia that something terrifying happens to Mellina and she is rescued by Lord Springdale, which is to completely change both their lives. How this all comes about is told in this exciting and intriguing story by BARBARA CARTLAND.

Barbara Cartland was the world’s most prolific novelist who wrote an amazing 723 books in her lifetime, of which no less than 644 were romantic novels with worldwide sales of over 1 billion copies and her books were translated into 36 different languages. As well as romantic novels, she wrote historical biographies, 6 autobiographies, theatrical plays and books of advice on life, love, vitamins and cookery. She wrote her first book at the age of 21 and it was called Jigsaw. It became an immediate bestseller and sold 100,000 copies in hardback in England and all over Europe in translation. Between the ages of 77 and 97 she increased her output and wrote an incredible 400 romances as the demand for her romances was so strong all over the world. She wrote her last book at the age of 97 and it was entitled perhaps prophetically The Way to Heaven. Her books have always been immensely popular in the United States where in 1976 her current books were at numbers 1 & 2 in the B. Dalton bestsellers list, a feat never achieved before or since by any author. Barbara Cartland became a legend in her own lifetime and will be best remembered for her wonderful romantic novels so loved by her millions of readers throughout the world, who have always collected her books to read again and again, especially when they feel miserable or depressed. Her books will always be treasured for their moral message, her pure and innocent heroines, her handsome and dashing heroes, her blissful happy endings and above all for her belief that the power of love is more important than anything else in everyone’s life.