Rosamond Lehmann Books In Order

Publication Order of Olivia Curtis Books

Publication Order of Rebecca Landon Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Publication Order of Collections

Rosamond Lehmann is a bestselling literary fiction author from the United Kingdom. The author was born in Bourne End in Buckinghamshire to the editor of “Punch” magazine Rudolph Lehmann, who was also a reputable fencer and oarsman.
Her father also served in the British parliament as a Liberal in 1906. Her mother was an American woman named Alice Davis that met her father while he was on a trip to the US.

The Lehmann family used to make their home on the banks of the Thames in a grand Edwardian house. Given that they were relatively wealthy, the children were taken care of by tutors, governesses, and nannies and rarely saw their parents.

In 1919, she attended the Cambridge-based Girton College where she graduated with a degree in English. Lehmann penned “Dusty Answer” her debut novel in 1927 and while it initially had a mixed reception, it would soon turn into a bestselling title.
However, it would be with the publishing of the novel “Invitation to the Waltz” in 1932 that she would come into her own. The work that was the first of the “Olivia Curtis” series would become an instant bestseller.
She now has more than a dozen works to her name that includes several single-standing novels, series, collections of short stories, and works of nonfiction.

During the Second World War, Rosamond Lehmann made her home in the countryside alongside her children. It was there that she got into a happy and long relationship with Cecil Day-Lewis the poet.

It was during this time that she began contributing to “New Writing” where she provide a series of highly popular short fiction. Her short stories would ultimately be compiled in the 1946 published “The Gypsy’s Baby.”
She separated from Day-Lewis in 1949 and in 1953 she published “The Echoing Grove,” which is arguably her most successful novel.

In 1958, she lost Sally her young daughter who had been the wife of J.P. Cavabnagh and this left her devastated and grief-stricken. It was this event that led her toward spiritualism and she describes her psychic and spiritual experiences in “The Swan in the Evening.”
For several years, many of her novels were out of print but once they were republished they found an appreciative new readership. Most of her works have since become bestsellers once again and in fact, “The Weather in the Streets” the second of the “Olivia Curtis” series has just been made into a movie.

Rosamond Lehmann ultimately moved to Kensington where she lived in a small but quaint house. Even in her eighties, Lehmann was never idle as she went to dinner and lunch dates and worked to produce a documentary about her life.
As the vice president of the London-based College of Psychic Studies and was also an editor of “Light,” the organization’s magazine. Rosamond Lehmann died in 1990 at 89 years old.

“Invitation to the Waltz” by Rosamond Lehmann is a charming and lively novel that first came out in 1932. The work is set in 1920 and tells the story of Olivia, a seventeen-year-old who gets her first invitation to the Waltz. She intends to attend the dance with Kate her beautiful older sister.

On the big day, she wakes up and is handed a beautiful scarlet fabric that she is supposed to make a dress with for the dance. She is also given a diary, a ten shilling note, and from her little brother an ugly little ornament.
In the days leading up to the ball, she will need to get her dress made and things are going according to plan. She is anticipating the arrival of Reggies who will go with the two sisters to the ball.
Reggies will be a partner for Olivia who has been brought up polite and is known to be overly self-conscious and terrified of hurting other people’s feelings.

The work explores the miseries and daydreams that even the most innocent social events can have on teens. Lehmann perfectly captures the agonies, trials, and emotions of a girl poised on the threshold of womanhood.

Rosamond Lehmann’s “The Weather in the Streets” is a work set a decade after the events of the first novel of the series. In this story, Olivia has a chance encounter with Rollo and they embark on an illicit relationship.
At the opening of the novel, Olivia is employed in London as a photographer’s assistant while living with Etty her cousin. She had separated from Ivor her husband two years earlier and now lives an unfulfilling dull life.
While she is traveling home one day to see her dad who is sick, she meets Rollo in a chance encounter that rekindles old feelings. She had met the man at the ball and had been enchanted by him even though he had broken her heart.
The two go on to have a forbidden love affair since Rollo is married to Nicola a high-strung and fragile woman while Olivia is yet to finalize her divorce from Ivar.

It makes for a beautiful story that expertly captures the devastation, frustration, and cruelty of a doomed love affair.

When it was first published it was years ahead of its time and shocked most of Lehmann’s fans with its passionate portrayal of clandestine love and searing honesty.

“Dusty Answer” by Rosamond Lehmann is set in England during the 1900 and features Judith who is a fascinating character.

At the opening of the novel, she is in her early childhood where she usually plays with a group of cousins from the Fyfe family. The latter usually head to the countryside for the holidays and are a huge source of fascination for Judith.

While she had initially been interested in all the kids, she would ultimately develop a particular fondness for the artistic and tortured soul of Roddy Fyfe. A few decades later they are all adults and the Fyfe family battered by war come back to live in the countryside.
There is an intense reunion and they relive their childhood feelings with the Fyfe family intensely fascinated by her in turn. They are intrigued by her mysterious power and beauty and each member of the family falls in love with her in turn as she transforms into a young woman.