Howatch

Rich Are Different was one of Howatch's earlier novels. It was followed by Sins of the Father, which followed the history of the Van Zale family up to the 1960s. We learn that Dinah died rescuing soldiers at Dunkirk but she destroyed Mallingham and prevented it form falling into Cornelius' hands. After her death, Cornelius took her children to America, where tehy spent a few years under Emily's care but during the War, Alan, her son and Tony, Steve's son were killed in Normandy. Sins follows Cornelius' later life, the problems of his marriage to Alicia and his love for his daughter Vicky. He finds it hard to communicate with people, even his wife, and she turns to another man. Cornelius is close to Scott, Steve's elder son but eventually he realises that Scott secretly hates him for Steve's death and is plotting to take over the bank. Vicky falls in love with Scott but he is unstable, and in the throes of his power struggle with Cornelius, he ends by committing suicide. Vicky has been married to Sebastian, Alicia's elder son and at the end of the book she goes back to him and we know that he will get the bank and Cornelius will die a lonely man. Sebastian's story is based loosely on the Emperor Tiberius, and Vicky on Julia, the daughter of Augustus.