THE GURNEYS OF BELGRAVIA

When, on Christmas Day 1899, Peter Gurney, Rector of a small country parish in Sussex dies suddenly, standing before his altar as the service nears it’s end, his wife and 5 adolescent children face both poverty and homelessness when, without savings, Peter's stipend comes to an end. They return to London, from which they had come some 3 years before, in the hope of finding some means of earning a living. There they discover they are the beneficiaries of a fairly large sum of money from an old acquaintance which enables them to rent a large house in Belgravia and run it, successfully, as a boarding house where many of their lodgers become their close friends and much involved in their lives including 2 world wars. This is their story which, covering almost 50 years, involves them all, not only in wars, but in many national and political events as well.