Madame MatisseThis is the story of three women one an orphan and refugee who finds a place in the studio of a famous French artist, the other a wife and mother who has stood by her husband for nearly forty years. The third is his daughter, caught in the crossfire between her mother and a father she adores. Amelie is first drawn to Henri Matisse as a way of escaping the conventional life expected of her. A free spirit, she sees in this budding young artist a

Could it be a great northern diver

has forced Egyptian society to acknowledge her as Pharaoh

he is a university student

or when they started to appear on their own

an oligarch's wife hosts a party on a superyacht moored in the Maldives

surrounding a murder that took place in Paris more than fifty years ago

a whaling ship battling through the unforgiving North Sea

Britain's Protector

She has harnessed the services of a tunnel-dwelling buggane

She remains hopeful a customer will soon choose her

and the Russians are on the trail

dissolute heir to the Pilaster banking fortune