"In the long, noble line of the English novel, R. F. Delderfield is building an imposing, artistic social history," wrote John K. Hutchens. "His narratives belong in a tradition that goes back to John Galsworthy and Arnold Bennett." In this volume, Adam Swann is the central character-ambitious, deeply in love with his tough-minded and independent wife, Henrietta, passionately devoted to his work-but the focus of the novel is beginning to turn to his children and their far-flung concerns:

Alex, a professional soldier, through whose eyes we relive the triumphs and tragedies of Imperial England, the terrible defeats at Isandlwana and Rorke's Drift, the heroic relief of Khartoum;

Stella, whose marriage into the landed aristocracy is annulled when her mother discovers that the unfortunate girl's husband is a homosexual and her father-. in-law an unprincipled lecher; Deb-orah, who devotes herself to uncovering the terrible injustices of the period, and through whom we see the poverty, degradation and corruption beneath the glittering, self-righteous surface of Victoria's England; and George, who re-

(Continued on back flap)

(Continued from front flap)

turns from Germany determined to take over his father's business and reshape it, and brings with him a new invention that will revolutionize Swann's and change the face of England-the first motor-driven transport vehicle. Its ap-pearance, rumbling and roaring at twenty-two miles an hour down the roads that have hitherto known only men and horses, is the signal for Adam Swann's retirement as he passes the torch to a new generation.

Theirs Was the Kingdom is a brilliantly woven tapestry of history, fact and adventure, and it explores the same world as Delderfield's bestselling God Is an Englishman. It is one of the most successful and compelling family sagas in English literature since The Forsyte Saga.

Jacket design by Arthur Barbosa

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