51% off
1
of
1
Return I Dare Not
Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still
learning, it may not be perfect - your
feedback is welcome!
Summary
Read More
Format: Paperback / softback
Save 51% Off
Savings are calculated from our regular price of
$39.00
compared to the current price of
$19.00.
$1900
$3900
Usually:
Unit price
/
Unavailable
On Sale
in
Romance Reads Sale
until
29 Jul or
while stocks last
OVERNIGHT NZ-WIDE DELIVERY
Found a better price? Request a price match
Return I Dare Not
$1900
$3900
Usually:
Unit price
/
Unavailable
Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?
Ideal for readers interested in literary fiction exploring identity, social expectations, and the complexities of human relationships within a mid-20th century British setting.
βShe is not only a romantic but an anarchist, and she knows the ways of men and women very well indeedβ Anita Brookner
Hugo Potts is a successful London playwright enjoying his moment of notoriety.
Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and
still learning, it may not be perfect - your
feedback is welcome!
Description
She is not only a romantic but an anarchist, and she knows the ways of men and women very well indeed β Anita Brookner
Return I Dare Not presents Hugo Potts, a successful London playwright enjoying his moment of notoriety. Adored by critics and pursued by women, he's the darling of the literary scene. However, his public persona is exactly thatβa personaβand he works tirelessly day and night to portray the person the public expects him to be.
One weekend, he attends a party at a country house alongside the most important publishers and writers of the time. It's an opportunity, of course, to meet interesting women. Yet, over the course of the weekend, he finds himself scorned by one and unexpectedly profoundly understood by another. As a result, his values and everything he's held to be important abruptly come into question.
Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?
Irish Times praises Margaret Kennedy for capturing the era's essence, blending an English domestic atmosphere with the vibrancy of 'Continental' bohemians.
Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9780099595465
Publisher: Vintage Publishing
Format: Paperback / softback
Date Published: 13 October 2014
Country: United Kingdom
Imprint: Vintage Classics
Audience: General / adult
DIMENSIONS
Spine width: 20.0mm
Width: 129.0mm
Height: 198.0mm
Weight: 224g
Pages: 336
About the Author
Margaret Kennedy was born in London in 1896 and read History at Somerville College, Oxford in 1915 (alongside Winifred Holtby and Vera Brittain) where she began writing. In 1924, Kennedy's second novel The Constant Nymph became a worldwide bestseller which she adapted into a hit West End play starring Noel Coward (three different star-studded film versions followed). Described as 'superb' by Elizabeth Bowen, Kennedy wrote fifteen further prize-winning novels including The Feast in 1950, as well as literary criticism and a biography of Jane Austen. She died in 1967.
Also by Margaret Kennedy
View all-
A Long Time Ago
An Edwardian family party on an Irish holiday is disrupted by a seductive prima donna. Elissa Koebel's memoir is as scandalous and self-absorbed as its writer, but for Hope, it is more than just the latest salacious read. The chapter A Summer in Ireland tells of an episode that Hope remembers well, when the younger, beautiful and unconventional Koebel arrived...Paperback$3000Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
A Night in Cold Harbour
A Night in Cold Harbour is a tale about a conscience awakened too late from the author of The Constant Nymph. Romilly Brandon was heir to a fortune and the handsomest and liveliest young man in the county. But in his twenty-first year, the pretty daughter of the local parson, Jenny Newbolt, broke his heart, and he left to live...Paperback$2400Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
Red Sky at Morning
Margaret Kennedy caught just the taste of the time, mixing a stolid domestic Englishness with 'Continental' bohemians β Irish Times William and Emily Crowne seem to have it all β they live a life of privilege and glamour in London, the children of a successful poet, attractive, happy, largely blind to the world around them. But life takes an unexpected...Paperback$3899Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
Lucy Carmichael
Celebrating 90 Years of Penguin Michael Joseph publishing with the Mermaid collection - Margaret Kennedy's Lucy Carmichael with a foreword by Lucy Mangan. 'People seem to get over things, don't they? I don't know how, but they do - ordinary people. I'm very ordinary, so I expect I shall do what they do.' Lucy Carmichael is jilted at the altar....Paperback$3600Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
The Feast
Tense, touching, human, dire, and funny, The Feast is a feast indeed. - Elizabeth Bowen Cornwall, Midsummer 1947. Reverend Seddon is on his annual seaside holiday with Father Bott; but to his disgruntlement, his host is busy writing a funeral sermon after a local disaster. Pendizack Manor Hotelβa coastal boarding house perched in a sleepy coveβhas just been buried in...PaperbackSold Out
More from General Fiction
View all-
The Wedding People
'BEST READ OF THE YEAR SO FAR' THE TIMES 'BOOKS AS FUN AS THIS ONE ARE FEW AND FAR BETWEEN' GUARDIAN Phoebe Stone arrives at a grand beachside hotel in Rhode Island wearing her best dress and least comfortable shoes. Immediately she is mistaken for one of the wedding people β but she's actually the only guest at the Cornwall...Paperback$2399Elsewhere:$2799Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
Throne of Glass Box Set (Paperback)
Enter the realm. Unleash the darkness. Live the legend. Discover the worldwide phenomenon of the #1 New York Times-bestselling Throne of Glass series in this gorgeous 8-book box set! In a land without magic, an assassin is summoned to the castle. She has no love for the vicious king who rules from his throne of glass, but she has not...Set$12400Elsewhere:$15500Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
Theo of Golden
THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLING PHENOMENON'For anything to be truly good, there must be love in it. Nothing is what it's supposed to be if love is not at the core.' One morning, a stranger arrives in the town of Golden. No one knows who he is or where he came fromβ¦His name is Theo and he's arrived there by chance β...Paperback$2899Elsewhere:$3499Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
The Score
Welcome to Briar U! Get ready for your newest obsession... Discover the addictive world of the Off-Campus series from The Queen of Hockey Romance, Elle Kennedy! Read The Score now for the perfect friends with benefits romance! He knows how to score, on and off the ice... Allie Hayes is in crisis mode. With graduation looming, she still doesn't have...Paperback$2499Elsewhere:$2799Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
The Goal
Welcome to Briar U!Get ready for your newest obsession . . . Discover the addictive world of the Off-Campus series from The Queen of Hockey Romance, Elle Kennedy!Read The Goal now for the perfect forced proximity romance! She's good at achieving her goals . . . College senior Sabrina James has her whole future planned out: graduate from college, kick...Paperback$2499Elsewhere:$2799Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
The Mistake
Welcome to Briar U! Get ready for your newest obsession . . . Discover the addictive world of the Off-Campus series from The Queen of Hockey Romance, Elle Kennedy! Read The Mistake now for the perfect second chance romance! He's a player in more ways than one . . . College junior John Logan can get any girl he wants....Paperback$2499Elsewhere:$2799Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
Project Hail Mary
Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir, the SUNDAY TIMES and NEW YORK TIMES bestselling author of The Martian, offers a gripping new adventure in hard science fiction. With endorsement from notable figures such as Barack Obama and a slew of five-star reviews, this novel promises a thrilling and intellectually stimulating journey. Ryland Grace, a lone astronaut, finds himself on a...Paperback$2399Elsewhere:$2400Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
New ReleaseYesteryear
A BOLD AND BITING SATIRE. WILL HAVE YOU GASPING TO THE FINAL PAGE β Nita Prose WICKEDLY FUNNY, BEAUTIFULLY WRITTEN AND FRIGHTENINGLY PERCEPTIVE β Abigail Dean INVENTIVE, ADDICTIVE, A WILD RIDE β Ashley Audrain SHOT THROUGH WITH HUMOUR AND LACED WITH DARKNESS β Clare Mackintosh The Stepford Wives meets The Handmaid's Tale β Hannah Deitch My name was Natalie Heller...Paperback$2999Elsewhere:$3699Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
New ReleaseOn Mystic Lake
One of the greatest storytellers of our time - Delia Owens, author of Where the Crawdads Sing Annie Colwater's only child has just left home for school in England. On that same day, her husband of twenty years confesses that he's in love with a younger woman. Left alone in the beautiful California house which was once a home, Annie...Paperback$3100Elsewhere:$3800Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
The Legacy
Welcome to Briar U! Get ready for your newest obsession . . . Discover the addictive world of the Off-Campus series from the Queen of Hockey Romance, Elle Kennedy! Read The Legacy now for the much-anticipated answer to the question: Where are they now? Four stories. Four couples. Three years of real life after graduation . . . A wedding....Paperback$2499Elsewhere:$2799Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
New ReleaseLand
Inspired by the mapping of Ireland in the mid nineteenth century, Land, theΒ new novel from the author of Hamnet, is at once intimate and epic: a portrait of a family navigating a legacy of upheaval and loss with love and hope. On a windswept peninsula stretching out into the Atlantic, TomΓ‘s and his reluctant son,Β Liam, are working for the great...Paperback$3199Elsewhere:$3799Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
Signed BookplateNew ReleaseLight Wielder
THE EPIC CONCLUSION TO METAL SLINGER, AKA THE BOOK WITH THE PLOT TWIST THAT BROKE THE INTERNET Sail the seas. Master the blade. Protect your heart. What would you do to have it all? READERS ARE GOING WILD FOR *METAL SLINGER* βThe BEST plot twist to ever grace my Kindleβ βββββ βThe author is a mastermind. Romantasy is back!!!!β βββββ...Paperback$3199Elsewhere:$3799Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow
Why buy from us?
Book Hero is not a chain store or big box retailer. We're an independent 100% NZ-owned business on a mission to help more Kiwis rediscover a love of books and reading!
Service & Delivery
Our warehouse in Auckland holds over 100,000 books, toys, board games and puzzles in-stock so you're not waiting for your order to arrive from overseas.
Auckland Bookstore
We're primarily an online store, but for your convenience you can pick up your order for free from our bookstore, which is right next door to our warehouse in Hobsonville.
Our Gifting Service
Books make wonderful thoughtful gifts and we're here to help with gift-wrapping and cards. We can even send your gift directly to your loved one.
General Fiction lists from the team
Explore our curated lists from our heroes to find your next read!
-
![]()
![]()
![]()
Hannah's listGeneral Fiction
Gothic Reads for Dark Nights
With the advent of movie adaptations like Wuthering Heights and Frankenstein, it looks like pop culture is seeing a revival of the...View the list -
![]()
![]()
![]()
Shirl's listGeneral Fiction
Shirl's Top 10 Most Recommended Books
These are my Top 10 books that I always recommend to my friends and whΔnau when they ask for recommendations for getting...View the list -
![]()
![]()
![]()
Lizzy's listGeneral Fiction
Books to Escape a Reading Slump
A reading slump can be a frustrating feeling and hard to break out of, but we've gathered together a list of crowd...View the list -
![]()
![]()
![Star Shipped]()
Lizzy's listGeneral Fiction
Lizzy's Pride Fiction Picks!
June marks Global Pride Month so in case you're looking for your next great fiction read, here's a list of some of...View the list -
![]()
![]()
![]()
Lizzy's listGeneral Fiction
Readersβ Top 100 Novels of All Time - from The Guardian
There was some controversy when The Guardian released their critics and authors list of the top 100 novels of all time, but...View the list -
![]()
![]()
![]()
Shirl's listGeneral Fiction
Shirl's Favourite Books of 2026
The first half of 2026 has been packed with brilliant books, making it hard to choose favourites but here are a few...View the list
