Winston Graham's The Merciless Ladies is a fictional biography set in the 1920s. Paul Stafford - a brilliant artist, from a home where success is all-important. His dazzling talent shot him to the heights of London. Olive Crayam - Paul's wife, and a woman destroyed by jealousy of her husband's talent, and his growing social success. Diana Marnsett - a young society beauty, and the woman behind Paul's climb to fame. But the price of success comes high, and Paul's decision to retreat from fame stirs the muddy waters of scandal into a dangerously lethal brew . . .