Other People’s Rules - Softcover

Hamilton, Julia

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0002261812 ISBN 13: 9780002261814

Publisher: HarperCollins, 2000

Synopsis

A magnificent, completely absorbing novel, revolving around a high society court case. A British Dominic Dunne.

A beautiful, tempestuous girl disappears from her family’s Scottish estate after her brilliant birthday ball. Neither she nor her body are discovered.

Her parents – the icon and celebrated pop star, Michael Gresham, and his wife, a stylish American heiress – employ private detectives and offer rewards but find nothing, until a local serial killer confesses to the murder.

In the neighbouring estate lives Ivar Gatehouse, government spokesman in the House of Lords, famous for his wealth, ancient title and social brilliance, with his fragile painter wife and four near adult children.

Both familes live in almost feudal splendour. Celebrated in Hello! and society pages, their worlds are detached, above, different from ours: they live according to other people’s rules.

But twenty years later, Earl Gatehouse is in Dumfries County Court on trial for murder and the witness on whom the Crown’s case will rely is Lucy Diamond, a one-time friend of his youngest daughter, an outsider to their privileged world, who had come to stay on the summer of the birthday ball.

About this title

Review:

Praise for her writing:

‘A writer of the first rank – she is compellingly readable’ Evening Standard

‘A subtle pen and a belief in the affirmation of love’
Elizabeth Buchan, Mail on Sunday

‘A thoughtful, warm, articulate novelist’ Helen Dunmore, The Times

From the Back Cover:

Katie Gresham's birthday was celebrated in style. Her parents, the famous musician and his American heiress wife, had restored the family's Scottish estates to perfection and the ball attracted neighbouring landowners and friends, urban socialites. Three months later she disappeared. Neither she nor her body could be found.

In the neighbouring estated lived the Gatehouse family. Earl Gatehouse, the government spokesman for agriculture in the House of Lords, famous for his wealth, ancient title and social brilliance, is known also for his fragile artist wife and four glamorous young.

Both families live in almost feudal splendour, their worlds detached from the normal as the aristocrats of a century before. Celebrated in magazines and society pages, they know that even if one of them goes beyond what the rest of society finds acceptable, they will have the connections to arrange a cover-up.

But twenty years later, Katie's body is found, and Earl Gatehouse is in Dumfries' Sheriff Court on trial for murder. The witness on whom the crown's case will rely is Lucy diamond, a onetime friend of his youngest daughter, an outsider to their privileged world, who had come to stay that year of the birthday ball.

Julia Hamilton draws a brilliant picture of an elite group – the arrogance and the fun, the behaviour, sometimes violent and masked as eccentricity, and above all the sense of belonging – which makes the privileged think they can live by other people's rules.

'Ivar Gatehouse was a man whom everyone had always wanted to know: almost more handsome in middle-age than his youth, he was brilliantly married, exceedingly rich, possessor of an ancient title and worshipped in a way that the British still worship a title, even at the end of the twentieth century.'

'An earl as the centrepiece of a trial such as this has all the right ingredients for the climate of barely concealed enmity that now exists between the different castes that make up British society.

Every morning whichever family members are attending pass through into the court. Claudia has refused to be smuggled in the back. And so she comes with Ivar each morning head held high, dressed as always in her ravishing clothes, and the crowd falls silent.

'Hamilton has a subtle pen and a belief in the affirmation of love'
ELIZABETH BUCHAN, 'Mail on Sunday'

'A thoughtful articulate novelist'
HELEN DUNMORE, 'The Times'

About this edition

• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0002261812
• ISBN 13: 9780002261814
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 384