The Courtyard BCA Edition [Import] [Hardcover]

Marcia Willett (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: Headline Book Publishing (December 7, 1995)
• ISBN-10: 0747224617
• ISBN-13: 978-0747224617
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Revel In Family Drama on the Moors of Dartmoor, November 8, 2006

By 

Antoinette Klein (Hoover, Alabama USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Courtyard (Paperback)

Augusta Merton may be Marcia Willett's greatest creation of her many great characters. She is elderly, alone, and poor when we meet her in an English teashop on the first page of this compelling story. Elegant enough to pause for tea in a nice shop but too poor to afford a piece of cake with her tea, Gussie finds an unlikely friend that day in the much younger Nell Woodward. Little did they know on that day, but the two would share a lifetime of triumphs and tragedies thanks to a second-hand dress and a borrowed hat.

A large English estate with stable buildings that are being converted into cottages is the setting for this multi-layered drama. Adultery, deception, death, despair, and redemption all play important roles in this, but it is the characters who give the work such a rich depth and make the reader anxious to turn the pages and discover what could possibly happen next.

Some of those who will intrigue you are: Henry, the altruistic lord of the manor; Gillian, his spoiled and selfish wife who learns a lot about life; John, the former navy man now finding his way in real estate ventures; Guy, the son of Kate Webster from previous novels, who finds a home in the courtyard; Elizabeth, the career woman with a few regrets; her best friend Lydia who is also Gillian's mother; and, of course, Gussie and Nell, who propel the plot and whose lives are the focus of a great part of the story.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A fan of Marcia Willett's writing, October 11, 2007

By 

Donna G. Davis (Rockford, IL United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Courtyard (Paperback)

Marcia Willett is an author who is frequently compared to Rosamunde Pilcher and Maeve Binchey and I would definitely concur. She is a wonderful storyteller.

This is a another book about families and lives entertwining, joy and sadness, to sum it up in two words dysfunctional lives - something we can all identify with.

This book will warm your heart as her books always do. I loved all the characters. Gussie, Henry, Nell, Gillian, Phoebe, Guy, Gemma. You just have to read it and you will love them too and miss them when you get to the end of the book.

I love the characters and this time there aren't so many I can't keep track of them. The story is intersting and keeps you reading to see how all the different lives will blend and play themselves out in the end. Of course, all the time hoping for a happy ending?

I love her writing and the charming places it takes me, she weaves stories of life and love that we can all understand. I love Marcia Willett and was so happy that Gussie had faith in God and talked to him, it was so refreshing in the world we live in today.. I meant to give it 5 stars.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Long overdue for publication in the United States, October 11, 2007

By 

Ellen Wertheimer "British novel reader" (Bala Cynwyd, PA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Courtyard (Paperback)

The Courtyard is an excellent book, beautifully written, vivid, and evocative. The characters come alive, and so do their lives. The reader ends up caring deeply about them, hoping that all will turn out well. One of the huge advantages to Marcia Willett's books, incidentally, is that characters from her novels tend to show up in subsequent novels, so the reader really has a chance to "see what happens."

It is about time that her books were published, in order, in the United States. The first of her books was First Friends, second is A Friend of the Family (called Thea's Parrot in England), and third is The Courtyard. I look forward to more of the books being issued in the lovely editions shared by the first three!