Ancestors: A Novel

Miss Thangue is a witty, self‑sufficient woman who has spent two years drifting through European capitals, earning her keep by becoming an indispensable companion to the fashionable ladies she serves. The daughter of a Yorkshire clergyman, she prefers the modest comforts of a club flat to the uncertainty of marriage. Now back in England, she arrives at the Capheaton estate, summoned by her old friend Victoria Gwynne, and finds herself amid genteel tea rituals and a palpable silence between them.

Victoria, a striking figure celebrated for her blend of aristocratic poise and romantic spirit, appears unusually withdrawn, her usual confidence dimmed by an undefined tension. As Miss Thangue sips her tea, she becomes a keen observer of the house’s undercurrents, sensing that the genteel façade may hide deeper anxieties about family legacy and personal desire. The novel invites listeners into early‑twentieth‑century England, where propriety, ambition, and hidden emotions intertwine, explored through Miss Thangue’s perceptive eyes.