A House in Winter: A glamorous princess and a restless young woman, both longing for escape

Set in January 1965, A House in Winter tells the story of the visit of Princess Margaret and Lord Snowden to his sister's home in Abbeyleix, Ireland, when they faced local opposition and IRA petrol bomb attacks that confined them, without electricity, for 48 fraught hours. As well as the conflict outside the walls, there's plenty within, with Margaret's difficult mother in law gleefully contributing to her disintegrating marriage. Meanwhile in the nearby village local woman Cait has struggles of her own, unable to escape family responsibilities and small town life. Both Margaret and Cait are trapped by their circumstances in this gripping novel, based on fact, that reads as a marriage of The Crown and Maeve Binchy.