The Four Swans: A Novel of Cornwall 1795-1797: 6 (Poldark) - Softcover

Graham, Winston

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0330463349 ISBN 13: 9780330463348

Publisher: Pan, 2008

Synopsis

The Four Swans is the sixth novel in Winston Graham's sweeping series of Cornwall, Poldark.

Cornwall 1795-1797. Although Ross Poldark – now something of a war hero – seems secure in his hard-won prosperity, a new dilemma faces him in the sudden infatuation of a young naval officer for his wife Demelza.

All four women – the four swans – whose lives touch Ross’s, face a crisis in these years. For his wife Demelza, his old love Elizabeth, his friend’s new wife Caroline and for the unhappy Morwenna Chynoweth these are times of stress and conflict.

The Four Swans is followed by the seventh book in the Poldark series, The Angry Tide.

About this title

About the Author

Winston Mawdsley Graham OBE was an English novelist, best known for the series of historical novels about the Poldarks. Graham was born in Manchester in 1908, but moved to Perranporth, Cornwall when he was seventeen. His first novel, The House with the Stained Glass Windows was published in 1933. His first 'Poldark' novel, Ross Poldark, was published in 1945, and was followed by eleven further titles, the last of which, Bella Poldark, came out in 2002. The novels were set in Cornwall, especially in and around Perranporth, where Graham spent much of his life, and were made into a BBC television series in the 1970s. It was so successful that vicars moved or cancelled church services rather than try to hold them when Poldark was showing. The BBC started broadcasting another successful Poldark series in 2015, starring Aidan Turner and Eleanor Tomlinson.

Aside from the Poldark series, Graham's most successful work was Marnie, a thriller which was filmed by Alfred Hitchcock in 1964. Hitchcock had originally hoped that Grace Kelly would return to films to play the lead and she had agreed in principle, but the plan failed when the principality of Monaco realised that the heroine was a thief and sexually repressed. The leads were eventually taken by Tippi Hedren and Sean Connery. Five of Graham's other books were filmed, including The Walking Stick, Night Without Stars and Take My Life. Graham wrote a history of the Spanish Armadas and an historical novel, The Grove of Eagles, based in that period. He was also an accomplished writer of suspense novels. His autobiography, Memoirs of a Private Man, was published by Macmillan. He had completed work on it just weeks before he died in July 2003. Graham was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, and in 1983 was honoured with the OBE.

Edition details

• Publisher: Pan
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 0330463349
• ISBN 13: 9780330463348
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 592