The Storms Of War: A Novel - Softcover

For fans of Downton Abbey, Atonement, and Birdsong, the first of three novels about a privileged British family during the First World War, from Globe and Mail—bestselling author Kate Williams.

I?n the early summer of 1914, life is good for the de Witt family. Rudolf and Verena are planning their daughter Emmeline’s wedding, while their eldest son, Arthur, is studying in Paris, and Michael is back from his first term at Cambridge. Celia, the youngest de Witt, is on the brink of adulthood, and dreams of escaping her carefully mapped-out future.

But with the onslaught of war, the de Witts find themselves in danger of losing everything. As Celia struggles to make sense of the world around her, she lies about her age to join the war effort and finds herself embroiled in a complex plot that puts not only her but those she loves in peril. 

With pitch-perfect detail, cinematic scope, and heartrending empathy, Kate Williams tells the unforgettable story of the de Witts as they are shunned by a society that previously embraced them, torn apart by sorrow, and changed by the storms of war.

KATE WILLIAMS is the author of the novels The Storms of War, Dancing into Life and The Pleasures of Men, as well as five acclaimed non-fiction books, including Becoming Queen, about Queen Victoria’s youth, and England’s Mistress: The Infamous Life of Emma Hamilton. She is also a social historian and broadcaster who appears regularly on radio and television as a historical and royal expert, frequently appears on BBC Breakfast and has hosted historical documentaries on TV and radio. The New World is the concluding volume in the Storms of War trilogy, which tells the story of the de Witt family between 1914 and 1939.

Web: kate-williams.com Twitter: @KateWilliamsme