The English Novels Part A: Bubble Reputation & Cardboard Castle (The Collected Novels of P. C. Wren)

The English Novels Part A contains two novels, Bubble Reputation and Cardboard Castle, that are set in the English countryside in large country manor houses. Bubble Reputation is the story of Sir Giles Cortenay (known as Bump), the last descendant of an old English family. Due to difficult economic circumstances, Bump has turned the family manor into a country hotel. The main plot is about the mystery of the murder of Bump’s granduncle and the search for a great hoard of jewels hidden on the estate by Bump’s buccaneer ancestor. The second novel, Cardboard Castle, is the story of Henry Waring, and a teenager, Anthony Calderton, who is the son of Lord and Lady Calderton, and considered “different”, and who remains at home when his parents leave to govern a British colony. When Lady Calderton is taken ill, however, she comes home to recuperate and this is when the villain, Captain Bertie-Norton, appears. This so-called “old friend” of Lady Calderton is actually her first husband, who everybody thought had died twenty years ago. He now wants Lady Calderton to provide his upkeep and living since he wants to “settle down” after his adventuring throughout the world. He wants to do this without anybody knowing who he really is. The rest of the book is about how Lady Calderton and Henry Waring, deal with Bertie-Norton and his demands, and how Henry deals with the teenager who is “mad” about the English Civil War.