Home Run

by Anne Melville

Looking back, everything Dick Bainton said was a lie. But at the time, it was possible to judge. His implausible excuse for turning up at The Millstone, a rambling farmhouse on the way to nowhere just north of Oxford, was to check security fittings. He also claimed no one answered when he rang the bell. But that aside, he offered money. Not directly, but in the form of another student for Miss Quilter's foreign language school -- and one who might help with the unending repair, maintenance and modernisation bills. The only uncertainty seemed to be the prospective student herself, Dick Bainton's fiancee. A Russian migr still apprehensive of the unknown future awaiting her. Needing security. Anonymity. And somewhere to hide. So Kit Quilter filled in the form, accepted a substantial cheque and handed over a receipt. Kit Quilter BA, MSc, Dip RSA, officially enrolled Ludmilla Tolstoya for a four-week course starting on 15 April. Kit Quilter was an idiot, first class. But at the time, how could she possibly have known?

256 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 1999

About the author

Margaret Edith Newman Potter (aka Margaret Newman, Anne Betteridge, Margaret Potter, Anne Melville, Margaret Evans)

Margaret Edith Newman was born on 21 June 1926 in Harrow, Middlesex, London, England, UK, the eldest daughter of Marjory Edith (Donald), a former teacher, and Bernard Newman, author of fiction and non-fiction books and considered an authority on spies. She had two sisters, Hilary (Mrs. Richard Hipkin) and Lauriston (Mrs. Malcolm Norris). She was educated at Harrow County School for Girls, from 1937 to 1944; and studied her Major scholar at St Hugh's College, Oxford form 1944 to 1947, she aslo earned her B.A. in 1947 and her M.A. in 1952. On 11 February 1950, she married (Ronald) Jeremy Potter, a publisher and later also published writer of mystery novels. They had a daughter, Jocelyn, and a son, Jonathan.

Before writing, she worked in various jobs, as teacher in Egypt and England, from 1947 to 1950; as editor at King's Messenger children's magazine in London, from 1950 to 1955; and as adviser at Citizen's Advice Bureau in Twickenham, Middlesex, from 1962 to 1970.

On 1959, she published her first mystery novel, Murder to Music as Margaret Newman. Her next novels were published under the pseudonym of Anne Betteridge, a tribute to her father's pseudonym Don Betteridge. Under her married name, Margaret Potter, she published Children's fiction. Under the pseudonym Anne Melville, she signed her historical novels since 1977. As Margaret Evans, she published two historical novels. She continued publishing until her death.

Widow since 15 November 1997, she died less than a year later on 26 August 1998 in Oxford, Oxfordshire.