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Closing Ranks

Published
Apr 1997
Main Genre
General Fiction General Fiction
Pages
288

About This Book

First published in 1997, this is Dirk Bogarde's sixth and final novel.



The Grayles have lived at Hartleap since Canute. They know this and are proud of the fact. Now they stand around the deathbed of their longest-serving nanny who is about to slip away.



Ada Stephens – known as Nanny Grayle and well into her nineties – will not go quietly. In the strange clarity that comes with the last remission, she looks at the saddened faces about her and surprises them all. She says that the most adored of her charges, Rufus, is 'tainted' and that his father, the revered war hero 'Beau' Grayle, was 'wicked'. None of them is going to get anything in her will - she has left everything to her nephew, Robert.

Thus begins the final demolition of a once-proud house.



Slowly, from Sunday to Thursday, as they attend to the many small duties that follow death, dark secrets unravel. The family must face the fact that their way of life, and the glory that was Hartleap, will slide into Nanny's grave with her. As terrible truths become known, they must desperately try to close ranks.

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Paperback

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Trade Paperback
Jun 2013 Bloomsbury (UK) ISBN 1448206839
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Hardcover

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Hardcover
First Edition Apr 1997 Viking ISBN 0670874191
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eBook

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eBook
Oct 2011 Bloomsbury Reader ISBN B0069RWY8O
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eBook
Nov 2011 Bloomsbury ISBN 1448206766
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Audio

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Audio Cassette
Sep 1998 Chivers Audio Books ISBN 0754001644
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Large Print

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Hardcover
Mar 1998 Chivers ISBN 0754010805
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Paperback
Dec 1998 Chivers ISBN 0754020576
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