Wentworth Hall

It's 1912, and the Darlingtons of Wentworth Hall have more than just the extensive grounds to maintain. As one of Britain's most elite families, they need to keep up appearances that things are as they have always been, even as their carefully constructed facade rapidly comes undone.

Lady Ariana Wentworth doesn’t care that the future Earl of Warwick would be a suitable match for her. She has no interest in marrying him or anyone else. Unfortunately, her father has other plans—and to her consternation, the deal has already been brokered, the marriage arranged. The only thing she can do now is refuse to meet her intended until the day of their wedding and hope she’ll be able to devise a way out of this fiasco before she’s forced to walk down the aisle. Or, perhaps the enigmatic and entirely too intriguing storm chaser she just met is the answer to all her prayers … But before Ariana can even begin to reclaim her independence, she must contend with scandal, attempted murder, and more family drama than she ever thought possible. Who knew the road to happily ever after could be so tempestuous?

A must-read for Downton Abbey fans—a lush, historical novel about the secretive Darlingtons of Wentworth Hall. Can’t get enough of Downton Abbey? Visit Wentworth Hall. It’s one of England’s oldest estates, and the Darlingtons are among the elite class of British society. But under the wealth are secrets that must stay hidden. It’s 1912, and eighteen-year-old Maggie and her mother have just returned from a year abroad where Lady Darlington has had a baby boy, James. But he is not the only addition to the house. They have also brought back Therese, their new French tutor, as well as welcomed the orphaned teenage twins, Teddy and Jessica, who have just lost their father aboard the Titanic. This adds to an already crowded house of Darlingtons and staff, all of whom have a penchant for gossiping about their employers. As time passes, it becomes clear that Teddy and Jessica would rather be anywhere else and that Maggie is a different person from the one who left Wentworth. Her family’s financial future rests with her finding the best husband—and her parents are sure that is Teddy. When scandalous satires start appearing in the newspaper with details that closely mirror the lives of the Darlingtons, the family is determined to find the culprit and keep their affairs under wraps. But at Wentworth Hall, nothing stays secret for long….

It was the home of a knight, a baron, a viscount, two marquises and nine earls. The family had estates not only in South Yorkshire, but also in North Yorkshire, the Midlands and Ireland, at their greatest extent covering nearly 120,000 acres. One head of household was beheaded. Another saw one of the last wolves in the British Isles. One owner built the Palladian mansion at Wentworth, which has the longest frontage of any country mansion in Britain, and was one of the earliest growers of pineapples in this country. One head of family was prime minister. Twice. Another provided financial assistance to more than 6,000 of his Irish tenants and their families to emigrate to Canada during the Great Famine. Another had a christening attended by 7,000 official guests. Yet another bought an ocean liner to go and search for buried treasure in the Pacific. This copiously illustrated book explores the history of the house, the estate and the family over more than 400 years, drawing on a wide variety of sources, particularly the family records (the Wentworth Woodhouse Muniments) held in Sheffield Archives.

Wentworth is in Yorkshire and was surrounded by 70 collieries employing tens of thousands of men. It is the finest and largest Georgian house in Britain andbelonged to the Fitzwilliam family. It is England's forgotten palace which belonged to Britain's richest aristocrats. Black Diamonds tells the story of its demise: family feuds, forbidden love, class war, and a tragic and violent death played their part. But coal, one of the most emotive issues in twentieth century British politics, lies at its heart. This is the extraordinary story of how the fabric of English society shifted beyond recognition in fifty turbulent years in the twentieth century.