Barbara Cartland Books

The Marquis of Melford was actually relieved to be alone on his yacht. Carnival in Venice was every bit as gay and abandoned as the Marquis had remembered, but after a few days the revelling had begun to bore him. Even the seductive charms of his dark-eyed mistress had worn a bit thin. Now the Marquis sat at the writing desk in his luxurious cabin, happy to be heading back to England, delighted his demanding mistress had decided to remain in Venice. Women were such a nuisance aboard ship, always.... The constant faint thumping noise behind him had finally succeeded in disturbing the Marquis' thoughts. It seemed to be coming from the large painted wardrobe that stood against one wall of the cabin. Opening the cupboard doors, the Marquis lost both his composure and his well-earned solitude. There, huddled in a corner, was the most beautiful young woman the Marquis had ever seen--a fragile, blue-eyed, golden-haired stowaway. Caterina runs away from a loveless and frightening marriage and takes refuge on a Marquis' yacht en route to England. When the yacht is blown off course and encounters Barbary pirates, it is only then that she and the Marquis realise they have fallen in love.

Black magic? Dorina Stanfield, the Vicar's young and lovely daughter could not belive that she was hearing Jarvis Yarde's murderous incantations against the one man who stood between himself and the ancient Earldom of Yardcombe. Yet it was true...and only Dorina could combat the gathering forces of evil that menaced the handsome raffish Earl who had captured her shy and secret heart...

Since the loss of her parents, the beautiful young Filipa Seymour runs the family’s ancient Manor House alone with very little money and only her beloved dogs and horses and ageing housekeeper, Mrs. Smeaton, for company. So she looks forward with excitement to every visit from her brother, Sir Mark Seymour, except that invariably he is looking for yet another heirloom in the house to sell in order to finance his extravagent Society lifestyle in London. So when Mark suggests a crazy plan for Filipa secretly to take the place of the glamorous ‘Pretty Horse-Breaker’ with whom he is due to ride at the Marquis of Kilne’s prestigious horse race meeting, she reluctantly agrees. Introduced to the Marquis and the other house guests as ‘Fifi’, Filipa is intimidated yet strangely enthralled by his dismissive attitude. But, even as she realises that she is falling in love with him, the Marquis seems oblivious to her and convinced that she is just another gold digger – until she foils a dastardly plot to poison his beloved stallion, saving its life and probably that of its rider as well and in the process opening the Marquis’s eyes to love.

Neula and her mother flee the wrath of her stepfather to Neula's childhood home, now the property of the rakish Marquis of Kerne

Alita Lang, who lives in a castle with her uncle, the Duke of Langstone, is never seen by outsiders. In fact no one knows of her existence. Her only interest is the horses she looks after and loves. But then one day she meets American millionaire Clint Wilbur on the Duke's private race-course.

Running away from the school that she hates, headstrong and rebellious, beautiful young Petrina Lyndon clambers over a wall into a country road, flinging her bag over before her and narrowly missing a dashingly handsome young Earl, to whom she complains about the ‘horrible, beastly’ Guardian who placed her at the school and how he never listens to her. She is even more shocked when the Earl reveals that he himself is actually her Guardian, the Earl of Staverton. And although he is not the elderly ‘stuffed shirt’ she expected, he is cold and unfriendly and unimpressed by her stated desire to go to London and become one of the ‘Lady-Birds’ that she has heard so much about. She tells the Earl that she wants to enjoy herself and not get married to some boring and stuffy aristocrat. The Earl is horrified at this unseemly and ignorant revelation and tells her so in no uncertain terms. Determined to dissuade her from a path that would lead her into depravity and danger the Earl insists that she allows him to launch her into Society as a debutante in an effort to marry her off. But Petrina has very different ideas. And she resolves to somehow steal his Lordship’s heart!

A SLEEPING BEAUTY AWAKES Marina Martyn was extremely rich and very beautiful, and engaged to a handsome and equally rich young man who loved her, but she did not love him. She always had everything, except a man she could love. When she broke off her engagement, she knew she must get away for a time from London and her hectic social life and find something she had never known; solitude. "I must get away," she cried. Away from her glamorous playmates and the man who wanted to marry her. She went to Estoril in Portugal, but she did not find solitude. She met a mysterious South American, fell madly in love with him, and found herself together with him on the run for their lives! So she ran away to Spain into the arms of the mysterious stranger. Marina had found the one man she could love, but he had plunged her into deadly peril! Who was this man who had bewitched her? Who was trying to kill them both?

The Marquis of Wynstanton had become involved with one of the beauties of London Society -- Locadi, Lady Marshall and when her husband died unexpectedly, the Marquis set out on a long journey to India and Nepal, as he wished to avoid any gossip arising about their liaison. After his return, he resumed the affair, staying on in London for some time when he should have gone straight to Wyn Castle and his country estate. Then he began to suspect that Locadi was using black magic to entice him to her and to induce him to propose marriage. Almost in a panic the Marquis returned to his estate, which he had neglected for so long only to find to his horror that he had been cheated by the manager he had left in charge. At Wyn Castle he meets Flora Romilly, the daughter of a distinguished author. She is known locally as the White Witch, because she can heal ailments with plants and leaves from her herb garden and has worked wonders with his grandmother's rheumatism. How Flora despises the Marquis as she is so disgusted at the way his people have been treated in his absence. How she is persuaded to help him make amends and put matters to rights on the estate. And how in fleeing from London the Marquis has not escaped from Locadi and her evil magic is all told in this unusual and exciting story by Barbara Cartland. If you like Downton Abbey you will love Barbara Cartland.

There is nothing for it -- we will have marry for money! The Strathcarrons have lived in splendour in Lednock Castle in Scotland for many generations, but the family fall on hard times when their fortunes become depleted. An American guest, Larry Harwood, comes to stay and persuades the Earl of Strathcarron to travel to New York with him to make his fortune, leaving his wife, his son, Ewen and daughter, Moira, to the mercies of fate.Six months later the Earl returns a broken man, having lost the entire estate to the American's creditors.Ewen and Moira hatch a desperate plan to save the castle and their very inheritance from the clutches of the American bank. They realise that their only recourse is to make good marriages into wealthy families with the hope that they can bail out their father. They head for London, and its glittering social scene with the express purpose of not returning to Scotland until they have both found suitable spouses. But things do not go to plan when Moira meets handsome Stuart Weston again and in spite of her promise to her brother, she finds herself falling in love with him. Torn between her loyalty to her family and her heart's desire, will Moira ever find true happiness or will she be forced into a loveless marriage of convenience? All is revealed in this exciting and romantic novel by BARBARA CARTLAND If you like Downton Abbey you will love Barbara Cartland .

Full of charm and wit, Barbara Cartland’s book of etiquette is as delightful now as when it first appeared in 1962. ‘For the record, the word “parlour” is not used, nor is the relatively recent insidious “lounge,” except about airports, hotels and liners.’ ‘Boys should be taught at a very early age — six or seven — to say “sir” to an older man.’ ‘I cannot stress too often that on every formal occasion, whether it is Luncheon, a Bazaar or a Meeting, a hat should be worn.’ Written nearly 50 years ago,Barbara Cartland’s Etiquette Handbookconjures up a period when addressing work colleagues by their first names was frowned upon, wives should expect to receive a weekly allowance of five shillings from their husbands, and hats were ubiquitous. Laced throughout with Barbara Cartland’s wit and wisdom, and Francis Marshall’s illustrations, this is a wonderfully evocative insight into the manners of an England that has largely disappeared.