The University of South Carolina Beaufort Lunch with Author 2022-2023 Series begins on Wednesday, October 5 at The Belfair Clubhouse, starting at noon. Katherine Reay will be discussing her historical fiction novel The London House. A national bestselling and award-winning novelist, Reay is author of Dear Mr. Knightley, Lizzy and Jane, The Brontë Plot, A Portrait of Emily Price, The Austen Escape, and The Printed Letter Bookshop.

ABOUT THE BOOK: Uncovering a dark family secret sends one woman through the history of Britain’s World War II spy network and glamorous 1930s Paris to save her family’s reputation.

Caroline Payne thinks it’s just another day of work until she receives a call from Mat Hammond, an old college friend and historian. But pleasantries are cut short. Mat has uncovered a scandalous secret kept buried for decades: In World War II, Caroline’s British great-aunt betrayed family and country to marry her German lover.

Determined to find answers and save her family’s reputation, Caroline flies to her family’s ancestral home in London. She and Mat discover diaries and letters that reveal her grandmother and great-aunt were known as the “Waite sisters.” Popular and witty, they came of age during the interwar years, a time of peace and luxury filled with dances, jazz clubs, and romance. The buoyant tone of the correspondence soon yields to sadder revelations as the sisters grow apart, and one leaves home for the glittering fashion scene of Paris, despite rumblings of a coming world war.

Each letter brings more questions. Was Caroline’s great-aunt a traitor and Nazi collaborator, or is there a more complex truth buried in the past? Together, Caroline and Mat uncover stories of spies and secrets, love and heartbreak, and the events of one fateful evening in 1941 that changed everything.

Katherine Reay

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Katherine Reay is the national bestselling and award-winning author of Dear Mr. Knightley, Lizzy and Jane, The Brontë Plot, A Portrait of Emily Price, The Austen Escape, and The Printed Letter Bookshop. All Katherine’s novels are contemporary stories with a bit of classical flair. Katherine holds a BA and MS from Northwestern University, graduating Phi Beta Kappa, and is a wife, mother, former marketer, and avid chocolate consumer. After living across the country and a few stops in Europe, Katherine now happily resides outside Chicago, IL.

Join us for lunch with author Katherine Reay at Belfair Country Club on Wednesday, October 5 at 12:00 pm. Books will be available for purchase and the author will be signing books.   Reservations must be made by September 27. Tickets are $50. The Lunch With Author series will continue on November 22, with Karen Grassle and her new book Bright Lights, Prairie Dust. For additional information go to USCBCENTERFORTHEARTS.COM or call 843-521-4145.

 

WANT TO GO?

What: USCB Lunch with Author Series featuring Author Katherine Reay

Where: Belfair Clubhouse, 200 Belfair Oaks Blvd, Bluffton

When: Wednesday, October 5 at noon.

Tickets: Tickets are $50.

Go to our website, www.USCBCenterForTheArts.com