Passing glory - Reay Tannahill

When Matt Briton, aged four, disgraced himself at Queen Victoria's funeral, the repercussions echoed down fifty years and across two world wars.

Matt, returning a war hero in 1918, rejects both his family and its traditions for a risky future in flying, just as Jenny Jardine, his brother's shy, pretty young widow, turns from the great country house of Provost Charters to the triumphs and traumas of the Clyde shipyard on which the family's fortunes depend. The result is a long, bitter conflict with remote, supercilious Paul Britton, his capricious and beautiful Russian wife Natasha, and Olympian cousin Howard - a conflict played out under the shadow of an old tragedy.

Rich in drama, laced with intrigue and secrets, Passing Glory is the enthralling story of how one family came to terms with the unquiet world during the five decades of peace and war that separated the funeral of Queen Victoria in 1901 from the coronation of Elizabeth II in 1953.

Winner of the RNA Novel of the Year Award.