Cover

Dedication

To my Doctor Watson, with love

The Aldermere House Convention

Celebrating the life and work
of the Princess of Poisoning

Lettice Davenport

and her Lady Detective

Dahlia Lively

Saturday 28th August – Monday 30th August

Convention Guests:

Rosalind King, actress (Dahlia Lively, 1980–1985)

Caro Hooper, actress (Dahlia Lively, 2003–2015)

Posy Starling, actress (Dahlia Lively, The
Lady Detective, soon to begin filming)

Kit Lewis, actor (Detective Inspector

John Swain, The Lady Detective)

Libby McKinley, writer (The Lady Detective)

Anton Martinez, director (The Lady Detective)

VIP Delegates:

Heather and Harry Wilson

Ashok Gupta

Felicity Hill

Convention Organisers:

Marcus Fisher

Clementine Jones

The family of Lettice Davenport, and
custodians of Aldermere House

Hugh Davenport,
nephew of Lettice Davenport, and his wife,

Isobel Davenport
along with their granddaughter
Juliette Davenport

Welcome you all to a weekend
of mystery and murder!

Map 1

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Map 4

Friday 27th August
Rosalind

Chapter One

‘Home can be a sanctuary or a prison, a haven or a horror,’ Dahlia said, sipping thoughtfully on her White Lady cocktail. ‘It all depends on who you have to share it with.’

Dahlia Lively in A Lady’s Place

By Lettice Davenport, 1934

The last of the late August sunshine slid away behind the alder trees by the river as Rosalind watched, Amaretto in hand, leaning against the windowsill to take the weight off her aching knee. Outside, crickets chirped in the darkness, and a cooler breeze swept in from the east. Her eyes felt droopy; the drive from London had taken it out of her in a way it never used to.

Aldermere House wasn’t ready for sleep yet, even if she was. Beyond the miniature box hedges, fading lavender and – of course – bright dahlia flowers of the formal gardens, the South Lawn already hosted a giant, white marquee that shone in the fading light. Tomorrow, there’d be stalls and people and activity everywhere.

Even now, the house was busier than Rosalind was used to. But then, she hadn’t been back for a while. How long had it been since she’d been to stay with Isobel and Hugh? She shook her head. Too long to remember.

So why did she remember her first visit, almost forty years ago, like it was yesterday? She could still feel the thrumming excitement in her chest as Hugh’s Rolls Royce Silver Spirit had pulled into the driveway of his family estate, knowing that she was going to meet not just his parents, but his famous Aunt Letty, too.

Everything had felt so new, then. They’d only just begun filming The Lady Detective, and playing Dahlia Lively, the detective of the title, still seemed more like a dream than reality. Meeting Hugh on the set, there as the family representative to see that his aunt’s books were treated faithfully, was another piece of the fairy tale. Falling in love with him? Inevitable.

Especially after he’d brought her to Aldermere.