The Clifton Chronicles, Books 4-7

Be Careful What You Wish For (2014)

It is Sebastian who survives the car accident. He skips Cambridge and starts working as a personal assistant to Cedric Hardcastle, the chairman of Farthings Bank, and starts dating Samantha Sullivan.

Harry’s novels climb the bestseller lists, and Emma becomes the Barrington Shipping's chairman. Meanwhile, Giles gets remarried to Gwyneth Hughes. His plan to be the Labour Party's leader, however, is sabotaged.

Jessica gets engaged to Clive Bingham and is offered a postgraduate place at the Royal Academy Schools. But she's also struggling with her mental health. When Don Pedro destroys her art and uses Virginia to reveal her parentage, she commits suicide.

The family gains new friends in the Binghams and Hardcastles, but old enemies and new -- Don Pedro, Alex Fisher and Virginia -- unite. Don Pedro plots to sabotage Barrington's new MV Buckingham, and the book ends with a bomb going off.


Mightier than the Sword (2015)

Harry's elected the new president of the English PEN, and his first mission is to get Anatoly Babakov, an author imprisoned in Russia for writing a book about Stalin, released. This is when we learn that Harry actually has a super impressive photographic memory.

After losing their toddler son, Giles and Gwyneth are drifting apart. On his trip to East Berlin as the foreign secretary, he has a one-night stand with an interpreter named Karin, forcing him to resign and ending his marriage.

Not agreeing with Sebastian's moral choice, Samantha leaves him. A few years later, he finds out that he has a daughter named Jessica Brewer, raised by Samantha in the US.

Cedric fires Sebastian's scheming boss, Adrian Sloane, but dies before making it public. Sloane appoints himself chairman, and Sebastian leaves Farthings and joins Kaufman's Bank. But his new friendship with Hakim Bishara leads him back to Farthings, and he's appointed deputy chairman -- because this family just cannot be average.


Cometh the Hour (2016)

Inspired by Maisie, Emma volunteers to be a governor at the Bristol Royal Infirmary, her first venture into public service.

Meanwhile, to get herself out of financial trouble, Virginia carries out an elaborate scam to blackmail Cyrus Grant, a rich man from Louisiana, by adopting her former butler's baby, claiming that he's biologically Grant's and hers. The boy is named Frederick.

Sebastian is now the chief executive of the Farthings Kaufman Bank. He travels to India to get an Indian girl he falls in love with named Priya back to the UK, but the trip comes to a tragic end. He reunites with Samantha and proposes to her.

Giles returns to East Berlin to smuggle Karin out, and, as suspected by many, she is revealed to be a Stasi spy. MI6 works to turn Karin, but her cover is eventually blown. The book ends with her Moscow handler ready to shoot her dead.


This Was a Man (2017)

Emma and Giles go head-to-head as their parties' marginal-seats campaign leaders. The Conservatives win the election, and Emma is appointed the Under Secretary of State for Health under Thatcher, and Giles is eventually appointed the Lord Chancellor.

Jessica almost loses her place at Slade, but Grace comes to her rescue. Earlier, Harry's knighted and Sebastian becomes the chairman of Farthings Kaufman, because what else is he going to be, and Giles adopts Frederick.

Speaking of, Virginia faces another round of financial trouble, and this time she marries the newly widowed Duke of Hertford to solve it.

When the DNA test finally becomes available, Harry and Emma get the confirmation they needed in regard to Harry's parentage. By this time, Harry, Emma and Giles are all in their 70s. It's the end of the soap opera, and the ending makes me super mad. But, totally, recommended reading.


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