Perfume from Provence [with] Sunset House [with] Trampled Lilies [with] Mountain Madness [with] Beauty of Ashes [with] Laughter in Provence. SPLENDID COLLECTION IN SIGNED HATCHARDS BINDINGS

6 vols., 8vo., Mixed Editions, with four frontispieces, and illustrations and photographs in the text; most attractively and uniformly bound in dark red half wide-grain morocco BY HATCHARDS, cloth sides, backs with five raised bands, second and third compartments lettered in gilt, gilt tops, a handsome collection ideal as a gift or for presentation. A lovely assembly of Winifred Fortescue's delightful memoirs wanting only the third volume 'There's Rosemary, There's Rue'. The collection comprises Perfume from Provence ( Fourteenth Impression, 1942), Sunset House (Fifth Impression, 1943), Trampled Lilies (Second Impression, 1942), Mountain Madness (First Edition, 1943), Beauty for Ashes (First Edition, 1948) and Laughter in Provence (First Edition, 1950). The collection was probably commissioned of Hatchards with the publication of Mountain Madness in 1943 after which all volumes are first editions. In the early 1930s, Winifred Fortescue and her husband historian Sir John Fortescue left England to settle in Provence, in a small house amid olive groves on the border of Grasse. Almost at once they were bewitched by the scenery, by their garden - an incredible terraced landscape of vines, wild flowers, roses and lavender - and above all by the charming, infuriating, warm-hearted and wily Provençals. On publication, Perfume From Provence became an instant best-seller and Lady Fortescue's enchanting books proved equally popular to a new generation when they were revived in the 1990s. Compulsive reading for anyone who has ever loved France, and most especially Provence.