Secret Darlington

Secret Darlington explores the lesser-known history of the town of Darlington through a fascinating selection of stories, unusual facts and attractive photographs.

Peregrine Ashby, Earl of Rutland A gentleman. A reluctant aristocrat. Desperate to avoid marriage. Peregrine Ashby, the newly and unexpectedly titled Earl of Rutland, is muddling through the affairs of becoming a suddenly wealthy and titled man of means. The last thing he wants to worry about is finding a wife. After the disaster of his parents’ loveless marriage, he’s sworn off wife-hunting. But when he stumbles quite literally into a mysterious beauty wearing a mask at a ball who begs for his help he can’t deny her. Her request? Make love to her beneath the stars and save her from a terrible marriage herself. After the magic of the night is over and the mysterious beauty has vanished, he remains haunted by her and what might have been... Sabrina Talleyrand flees her home when she learns her brother has sold her in marriage to a foul man. Knowing the one thing that will stop the marriage is no longer being a virgin, she seduces the first man at a masked ball that attracts her attention. But making love to the handsome dark-haired stranger with amber-colored eyes has left her changed in more ways than one...

Originally published in 1986, Hollywood Destinies was the first full-length, detailed study of the careers of major European filmmakers, including Ernst Lubitsch, F. W. Murnau, Victor Sjostrom, and Mauritz Stiller, all of whom left their native countries to work in Hollywood during the 1920s. This edition contains recent scholarship on the reception of foreign films and directors in America in the 1920s, analyzes films that were not previously available, and includes a revised and updated bibliography.

Vice is his first, middle, and last name… can this angel save him? The Viscount of Vice likes two types of women, the ones that fall easily into his bed and the ones that leave just as quickly. So why can’t he stop thinking about the sweet Miss Ada Chase? Her auburn hair and green eyes haunt his dreams, though they shouldn’t. She’s perfectly wrong for him… The Viscount of Viceroy looks like he’s Heaven sent but underneath that perfect veneer lies a scoundrel, Ada is certain of it. And ladies like her should stay far away from rogues like him. So why is she tempted by his perfect charm?

The secret military facilities hidden across Great Britain are revealed and investigated in this fascinating WWII history. During the Second World War, thousands of facilities across Britain were requisitioned to support the war efforts. Beyond that, countless others were built from scratch. Often the purpose of these locations was a closely guarded secret, even from those living close by. In Secret Wartime Britain, Colin Philpott has compiled a fascinating collection of sites that still exist in some form today. They include underground factories, storage sites and headquarters; spy and communication centers; interrogation and POW camps; dummy sites; research facilities such as the sinister Porton Down; treasure stores in stately homes and even royal retreats in the event of invasion, such as Madresfield Court. Where were these sites and why were they needed? How successfully were they kept secret? What has happened to them since? Were they returned to their owners? Answers to these and other questions make Secret Wartime Britain a riveting and revealing read.

In this one-of-a-kind novel that bends borders, a happy marriage of poetry and fiction, the hero is Russel Darlington, a born naturalist and an unlikely romantic hero. We meet him in the year 1895—a seven-year-old boy first glimpsed chasing a frog through an Indiana swamp. And we follow this idealistic, appealing man for nearly forty years: into college and over the Rockies in pursuit of a new species of butterfly; through a clumsy courtship and into a struggling marriage; across the Pacific, where on a tiny, rainy island he suffers a nightmarish accident; through the deaths of friends and family and into a seemingly hopeless passion for an unapproachable young woman. Darlington’s Fall is ultimately a love story. It is written in verse that—vivid, accessible, and lush—imparts an intensity to the story and its luminous gallery of characters: Russel’s rich, taciturn, up-right, guilt-driven father; Miss Kraus, his formidable housekeeper; Ernst Schrock, his maddening, gluttonous mentor; and Pauline Beaudette, the beautiful, ill-starred girl who becomes his wife. Leithauser’s embracingly compassionate outlook invites us into their world—into a past so sharply realized it feels like the present. In Darlington’s Fall, Brad Leithauser offers an ingeniously plotted story and the virtues long associated with his elegant stanzas: wit, music, and a keen eye for the natural world. His independent careers as novelist and poet come together brilliantly here, producing something rare and wonderful in the landscape of contemporary American writing.