Darby and Joan

A series of romances, missed chances, and disasters befall the lives of Joan Brendon and Alexander Luttrell in a real life game of snakes and ladders, as each falls for others who enter their lives at seemingly unpropitious moments. Tragic misunderstandings, old flames turning up on wedding days, and bizarre coincidences are all the result of a missed letter! The Island of Malta features in this Victorian romance, which Baring based on a true story, providing insight into both the times and human strengths and weaknesses, before Darby and Joan end their days in happiness. The Author: Born in London in 1874, Maurice Baring was a man of letters, and a scion of a family long prominent in the financial ventures of the British Empire. The son of the 1st Baron Revelstoke (a director of the Bank of England and a senior partner at Baring Bros.), Baring was educated at Eton and at Cambridge, before joining the diplomatic service. In 1904 he became a journalist and reported the Russo-Japanese War in Manchuria; later he was a correspondent in Russia and Constantinople. He is credited with having discovered Chekov’s work in Moscow and helping to introduce it to the West. Baring is remembered as a versatile, prolific and highly successful writer, who produced articles, plays, biographies, criticism, poetry, translations, stories and novels. He is regarded as a portrayer of the social culture that flourished in England before World War I, his work highly regarded to this day for the acute intimate portraits of the time.