Gingerbread Mansion - Tapa dura

This book describes the life in an English stately home. The Second World War has ended but the world has changed. For the Jago family, life will have to continue without their son, Kit, killed in action a week before peace was declared. Their rambling old home, Lizzah, and its antiques, is in severe disrepair and in need of more money than the destitute aristocratic family can afford. In an act of desperation, Virginia Jago brings in Charles Garland from the National Trust, a famous charity renowned for taking over and renovating the crumbling stately homes of the British Isles. However, Charles faces opposition from the family and local community as he represents a modern world at odds with Lizzah and life before the war...

Lizbie Brown is the successful author of the Elizabeth Blair series of mysteries, set in Bath, England. She was born in Cornwall, but now lives in the South Mendips, near Bath where she taught for many years before turning to writing full-time.