Scandalous Risks
Susan Howatch
The author’s most famous and well-loved work, the Starbridge series, six self-contained yet interconnected novels that explore the history of the Church of England through the 20th century.In 1963, when traditional values are coming under attack, a young woman in her twenties, Venetia Flaxton, becomes disastrously involved with her best friend's father, the powerful, dynamic but ultimately mysterious Dean of Starbridge Cathedral. Yet, as a married man and a senior Churchman, Aysgarth has nothing to offer her but an admiration which spirals out of control into an obsessive love. As Aysgarth begins to take scandalous risks to further their friendship, pressures rise and the dangers multiply. Venetia finds herself trapped in a desperate web of love and lies from which it seems impossible to escape.Witty, compassionate and compelling, Scandalous Risks explores not only the reality of sin and the fantasy of sexual obsession, but the overpowering human need for redemption, love and lasting happiness.
Susan Howatch
SCANDALOUS RISKS
COPYRIGHT (#u1a2015f4-5a4f-576d-b3e6-9f4b56d41963)
This novel is entirely a work of fiction.The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
HARPER
A division of HarperCollins Publishers 1 London Bridge Street, London SE1 9GF
www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk)
First published in Great Britain by William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd 1990, then in paperback by Fontana 1991 and by HarperCollinsPublishers 1993
Copyright © Leaftree Ltd 1990
The Author asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this ebook on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins ebooks
HarperCollinsPublishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content and written content in this ebook has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication
Source ISBN: 978000739642
EBook Edition © JUNE 2012 ISBN: 9780007396412
Version: 2016-10-05
CONTENTS
COVER (#u9ded64ff-f19e-5c6f-af01-fdf6b711ed3c)
TITLE PAGE (#u1f7fa8fb-19e8-5a19-8617-23e47f3fea33)
COPYRIGHT
PART ONE
ONE
TWO
THREE
FOUR
FIVE
SIX
PART TWO
ONE
TWO
THREE
FOUR
FIVE
SIX
PART THREE
ONE
TWO
THREE
FOUR
FIVE
PART FOUR
ONE
TWO
KEEP READING (#litres_trial_promo)
AUTHOR’S NOTE
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
PRAISE
ALSO BY THE AUTHOR