There’s an old Chinese proverb: ‘When the wind blows, the reeds must bend’ And so it is that Merry Hall, the family seat of the Beaumont family, has stood as a symbol of wealth and power for centuries, and dates back to William the Conqueror. Despite war and struggle it has always maintained a male heir; when the direct line disappeared a cousin from India had taken over. The Hall had gone into decline but the new male heir, Sir Thomas Beaumont, was determined to return the Hall to its former grandeur and to leave a good inheritance for his young sons. The story begins in peacetime England in 1933, in the idyllic setting of a sumptuous family garden party. Pleasantries are exchanged but times are changing and the lure of the outside world is pulling the sons into different directions: the army, the Colonial Service and big business. We are taken on a journey through Europe and the Far East, as the Second World War draws nearer and the world changes around the family. Peter Rimmer paints a poignant picture in this epic tale which weaves a rich pattern of family life, interspersed with love, intrigue, hatred and desire.