Hidden Palace
A rebellious daughter
1925. Among the ancient honey-coloured walls of the tiny island of Malta, strangers slip into the shadows and anyone can buy a new name. Rosalie Delacroix flees Paris for a dancer’s job in the bohemian clubs deep in its winding streets.
A sister with a secret
1944. Running from the brutality of war in France, Florence Baudin faces a new life. But her estranged mother makes a desperate request: to find her vanished sister, who went missing years before.
A rift over generations
Betrayals and secrets, lies and silence hang between the sisters. A faded last letter from Rosalie is Florence’s only clue, the war an immovable barrier – and time is running out…
‘Completely swept me away to another place and time. Dinah is the queen of sumptuous settings, transporting the reader effortlessly from chocolate-box Devonshire to the cabaret clubs of 1920s Paris and war-torn Malta. A marvellous, multi-layered story, populated with characters to really care for’ HAZEL GAYNOR
‘Dinah Jefferies wields her storytelling magic on the island of Malta . . . It’s engrossing and sensual, full of the heat of the Mediterranean sun’ GILL PAUL
‘Powerful, passionate and profoundly moving . . . this compelling mix of love and tragedy vibrates with warmth and pain, and captures the intense dislocation of war’ KATE FURNIVALL
‘Sweeping and sumptuous with a gorgeous described sense of place. A marvellous adventure’ TRACY REES
‘A richly atmospheric tale of grief, determination and hope’ Woman’s Own
‘True escapism’ Best
Daughters of War hit #5 in the Sunday Times bestselling charts on 26th September 2021.
Dinah Jefferies began her career with The Separation, followed by the No.1 Sunday Times and Richard and Judy bestseller, The Tea-Planter’s Wife. Born in Malaysia, she moved to England at the age of nine, and went on to study fashion design, work in Tuscany as an au pair for an Italian countess, and live with a rock band in a commune in Suffolk.
In 1985, a family tragedy changed everything, and she now draws on the experience of loss in her writing, infusing love, loss and danger with the seductive beauty of her locations. She is published in 29 languages in over 30 countries and lives close to her family in Gloucestershire.