The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets - Softcover

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EVA RICE is a writer and young mother living in London.

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Table of Contents

Title Page

Copyright Page

Dedication

Acknowledgements

Epigraph

ONE - The Girl in the Green Coat

TWO - Aunt Clare and Harry

THREE - The Duck Supper

FOUR - Miss Six Foot Nothing

FIVE - Snowfall and Forty-fives

SIX - How to Live at Home and Like It

SEVEN - Me and the In-Crowd

EIGHT - All the Honey

NINE - Modern Boys and Guinea Pigs

TEN - Five O’Clock and Later

ELEVEN - My Beautiful Youth

TWELVE - Inigo Versus the World

THIRTEEN - The Long Gallery

FOURTEEN - Somebody Stole His Gal

FIFTEEN - Marina Trapped

SIXTEEN - The Intruder

SEVENTEEN - Drama in the Dining Room

EIGHTEEN - In the Garden and Out of Touch

NINETEEN - Such a Night

TWENTY - My American Heroes

TWENTY-ONE - The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets

TWENTY-TWO - The Occasional Flicker

Epilogue

Afterword

A PLUME BOOK

THE LOST ART OF KEEPING SECRETS

EVA RICE, daughter of lyricist Tim Rice, is a writer, musician, and young mother living in London.

Praise for The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets

“The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets is as stylish, rich, and skillfully tailored as a gorgeous 1950s vintage coat. . . . With its quirky characters and lush English settings, it made me long to have lived in the London Eva Rice has evoked.”

—Kate Harrison, author of The Starter Marriage

“[A] novel in which a time and place is recovered with enveloping atmosphere and characters who linger on in mind.”

—New York Daily News

“Rice’s remarkable gift for creating singular characters in this memorable story underscores her presence as a fresh new voice in fiction.”

—Publishers Weekly

“The reader becomes lost in the vivid depiction of 1950s London and Penelope’s romantic world, where a chance meeting can change your life forever.”—Library Journal

“You’ll be engrossed right through the novel’s tied-up-with-ribbons ending, where secrets are revealed, everyone pairs off with the person you least expect, and we all learn that all you need is love.”

—Daily Candy, Washington, D.C., edition

“Bright prospects all around.”—Kirkus Reviews

“Eva Rice . . . has a keen ear and eye for the charm, glamour, and nuances of 1950s British life.”—Bookreporter.com

“Charlotte is a wonderful protagonist whose evolution from a naive girl to a polished woman of the world (at least the Thames) makes for a fine sensitive tale.”—Midwest Book Review

“A brilliant portrait of post-World War II London.”

—Historical Novels Review

“Charming and witty.”—School Library Journal

PLUME
Published by Penguin Group
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(a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd.)
Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty.) Ltd., 24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196, South Africa

All rights reserved

REGISTERED TRADEMARK—MARCA REGISTRADA

The Library of Congress has catalogued the Dutton edition as follows:
Rice, Eva, 1975-
The lost art of keeping secrets / Eva Rice.
p. cm.

eISBN : 978-1-101-01085-3

1. London (England)—Fiction. 2. Socialites—Fiction. 3. Friendship—Fiction. I. Title.
PR6118.I35L68 2006
823’.92—dc22 2005020738

Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

PUBLISHER’S NOTE

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

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For Donald “Capability” Rice,
who helped me invent Milton Magna

Acknowledgments

The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets would have floundered at the starting post if not for the following, so groveling thanks to: Claire Paterson, Eric Simonoff, Molly Beckett, Christelle Chamouton, Rebecca Folland and all at Janklow and Nesbitt, Harriet Evans (editor extraordinaire), Catherine Cobain, Georgina Moore and the brilliant team at Hodder Headline, the amazing Trena Keating, Emily Haynes and all at Dutton. Joanna Weinberg, Edward Sackville, Bee Ker, Paul Gambaccini, Ray Flight (who knows his Teds), Tim Rice, my grandmother Joan Rice, my mother Jane (who is nothing at all like Talitha), and Donald Rice, whose knowledge of great country houses is unrivaled.

Bouquets to Ann Lawlor (who was there at the Palladium when Johnnie Ray played), Sue Paterson, for having the foresight never to throw away her brilliant fifties magazines, Petrus, Martha, and Swift. I would also like to acknowledge Ruby Ferguson as a great inspiration.

She said that we must do something about the rooms.
The walls were all damp and fur had settled on some
parts of the wallpaper. But we just closed the doors and
hurried down to the kitchen where it was warm.

ONE

The Girl in the Green Coat

I MET CHARLOTTE IN LONDON one afternoon while waiting for a bus. Just look at that sentence! That in itself is the first extraordinary thing, as I took the bus as rarely as once or twice a year, and even then it was only for the novelty value of not traveling in a car or train. It was mid-November...