What do you do if you are of noble stock - but impoverished, and living in London with a certain style to maintain? One has to work - but one's relatives will be appalled when one turns one's hand to trade - and opens a hotel, The Poor Rrelation, offering employment to others of the same social standing and in the same awkward situation. This is precisely what Mrs Fortescue decides upon and, together with friend Colonel Sandhurst, transforms her decrepit...

After happening on Sir Randolph's lovely daughter Frederica, who is running away to escape an awful marriage to Lord Bewley, the Colonel devises a plan to force Sir Randolph to settle his bill for six month's stay and to save Frederica from her fate. The clever plan is thwarted when Lord Bewley shows up at the drop point instead of Sir Randolph. The poor relations must make a deal with Lord Bewley in order to get their money and stay out of jail,...

On 21 June 1922 Count Alexander Rostov - recipient of the Order of Saint Andrew, member of the Jockey Club, Master of the Hunt - is escorted out of the Kremlin, across Red Square and through the elegant revolving doors of the Hotel Metropol. But instead of being taken to his usual suite, he is led to an attic room with a window the size of a chessboard. Deemed an unrepentant aristocrat by a Bolshevik tribunal, the Count has been sentenced to house...