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Paperback / ISBN-13: 9781860497667

Price: £10.99

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THE BESTSELLING NOVEL NOW A SUCCESSFUL MINISERIES STARRING SALLY FIELD

‘Bess is so remarkable a character’ NEW YORK TIMES

‘A delightful reading of large, splashy doings in the small pond’ KIRKUS REVIEWS

‘Irresistible . . . nothing about it is ordinary’ LOS ANGELES TIMES

At the turn of the century, a time when women had few choices, Bess Steed Garner inherits a legacy – not only of wealth but of determination and desire, making her truly a woman of independent means.

From the early 1900s through the 1960s, we accompany Bess as she endures life’s trials and triumphs with unfailing courage and indomitable spirit: the sacrifices love sometimes requires of the heart, the flaws and rewards of marriage, the often-tested bond between mother and child, and the will to defy a society that demands conformity.

Told in letters we follow the remarkable life of Bess from her childhood in 1899 to her death in 1977.

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Reviews

Bess is so remarkable a character that I seem here to be reviewing not A WOMAN OF INDEPENDENT MEANS but the woman herself
NEW YORK TIMES
A delightful reading of large, splashy doings in the small pond of an endearingly lively, bossy, responsible, and much-loving lady
KIRKUS REVIEWS
Thanks to Hailey's splendid mastery of plain English, Bess illuminates the life of others as well as her own in deft, articulate, cursive strokes that any love of language will find irresistible . . . nothing about it is ordinary
Los Angeles Times
Thanks to Hailey's splendid mastery of plain English, Bess illuminates the life of others as well as her own in deft, articulate, cursive strokes that any love of language will find irresistible
LOS ANGELES TIMES
Irrestistible ... nothing about it is ordinary
LOS ANGELES TIMES
A delightful reading of large, splashy doings in the small pond of an endearingly lively, bossy, responsible, and much-loving lady
Kirkus Reviews
Elizabeth Forsythe Hailey . . . [A] classy, classic-penning author of the trailblazing A Woman of Independent Means
Texas Observer
Bess is so remarkable a character that I seem here to be reviewing not A Woman of Independent Means but the woman herself
New York Times