Fortunes Of War: The Great Fortune

Olivia Manning

Fortunes Of War: The Great Fortune by Olivia Manning (Downloadable audio ISBN 9780857865076) book cover

Available as Downloadable audio

An intense, emotional look at love and friendship during wartime

Set under the gathering storm that is the Second World War in Romania, The Great Fortune is the first action-packed, romantic and fascinating book of The Balkan Trilogy.

Guy and Harriet Pringle marry after a six month courtship. Still getting to know each other, they arrive in Bucharest, where Guy is employed in the English Department of the University of Bucharest.

Over the following years Guy builds an eclectic network of friends and acquaintances. These charismatic contacts include his work colleague Clarence, his boss Lord Inchcape, the eccentric Prince Yakimov and Sophie, a local Romanian beauty. Harriet appears tough, but is also vulnerable and lonely, nuances that Guy often misses as he plunges wholeheartedly into one project after another.

Reader, Emilia Fox is a versatile and charismatic actress who has enjoyed popular stage and screen success both in the UK and in the USA.


Olivia Manning

Olivia Manning (1908-1980) was a British novelist, poet, writer and reviewer, with a particular interest in themes of personal alienation and displacement.