In Regency England Mrs Thorne's School for Young Ladies is about to close due to the death of young Clarissa's mother a year ago.This leaves eighteen-year-old Clarissa Thorne and her three school mistress friends no option but to return to the bosom of their families as despised 'poor relations' - at everyone's beck and call for all their lives. But Clarissa has just inherited Ashcroft, a large crumbling estate, and she offers her companions an escape - run away with her to a life of independence and adventure. They must put the estate to rights with little money and less experience. Can sensible Miss Micklethwaite, aging romantic Miss Appleby and the beautiful Miss Oriana Petersham escape their fate? To keep the vivacious, impulsive Clarissa in check they must at least try. However, their relatives may have other plans. Meeting the Earl of Grandiston and his companion (a devotee of the divine Oriana) on the road sets hilarious events in motion. Perhaps to adventure the ladies must add romance... Lovers of Georgette Heyer and Jane Austen will enjoy a return to lighthearted comic romance.
Alicia Cameron is primarily a crime novelist whose alternate joy is the wit of Austen and Georgette Heyer. Her nom de plume allows her to indulge in a world where whatever tests ladies meet (and the Regency period offered many obstacles) they always come out smiling. Her whole family shared a love of Austen and Heyer and Clarissa and the Poor Relations was written at first as family entertainment, then shared.
