Brief Introduction

Adam Runaway is rambunctious, funny and moving historical novel set against the magical backdrop of eighteenth-century Lisbon. Meet an unforgettable young hero, Adam Runaway, in a heady tale of love and death and money ...

The Story

It is 1721. George I is on the throne and Britain just emerging as the world's leading commercial power. Handsome young Adam Hanaway arrives in Lisbon, where his uncle is a merchant, hoping to restore the family fortune, devastated the previous year by his father抯 speculations on the South Sea Bubble.

But almost nothing turns out as Adam planned. His family抯 welcome is cool and his rise to the top is thwarted. Nor is Adam, with his gaudy clothes and his young-man swagger, an immediate success with his uncle抯 fellow merchants.

But there are plenty of compensations — perhaps too many! There is Maria Beatriz, a woman of great personal style and indeterminate age; the incomparably sweet Gabriella, whose innocence Adam unintentionally threatens, and Nancy, his deliciously charming young cousin.

Adam out of his depth, but happily so — until darker forces intervene. Expelled from his uncle抯 firm, Adam must clear his name, win his love, and make his fortune.

The Author

Peter Prince won the Somerset Maugham Award for Play Things, his first novel. For his screenplays, he has won a BAFTA, A Writers Guild of Great Britain Award and the Mystery Writers of America Special Award. His magnificent new novel, Adam Runaway, will be published by Bloomsbury in September 2005.