Music of the Heart

By Mary Burchell

Every family has its secrets…

When Gail Rostall is invited to her good friend Oliver Bannister’s family home, she has no idea he was one of the Bannisters – the most distinguished musical family in the country.

Nor had she any idea that Oliver’s brother was the famous composer Marcus Bannister.

An ambitious, young singer herself, Gail finds it difficult to convince the frosty Marc that she had not come along simply with the idea to further her career.

In fact, before long her feelings for him become anything but professional!

With the role of a contralto heroine up for grabs in Marc’s new opera, Gail soon finds herself at the source of family friction.

And it suddenly occurs to Gail that she is being asked to keep too many family secrets for the celebrated Bannisters.

As auditions loom around the corner, just how will Gail manage to uphold family harmony without jeopardizing her own career…?

Mary Burchell was the pen name of Ida Cook (1904-1986). With her eldest sister Mary Louise Cook, she attended the Duchess’ School in Alnwick. Together, the sisters helped 29 Jews to escape from the Nazis, funded mainly by Ida’s writing. In 1965, the Cook sisters were honored as Righteous Gentiles by the Yad Vashem Martyrs and Heroes Remembrance Authority in Israel. Mary Burchell published more than 125 romance novels in total and helped found the Romantic Novelists’ Association, standing as its president from 1966 until her death.