The Shooting Party - Isabel Colegate

''Threads of romance, social comment, country lore and intrigue both above and below stairs are cunningly worked together to create a brilliant tapestry'' Sunday TelegraphIt is 1913 - a breath away from the Great War - and Edwardian England is about to vanish into history. An assorted group of men and women gather at Sir Randolph Nettleby''s estate for a shooting party. Opulent, adulterous, moving assuredly through the rituals of eating and slaughter, they are an era''s dazzlingly obtuse and brilliantly decorative finale.A quiet, elegant meditation on class frustration and the transience of human concern, The Shooting Party is also the inspiration behind one of the great landmarks of popular culture - Downtown Abbey.