Publisher's Synopsis
Charlotte Heywood is unmarried and still lives at home, the eldest of the Heywood daughters to do so. Her father is a country squire, a gentleman, and the family lives in the south-east of England in the pretty, coastal county of Sussex. It is a usually quiet place to live, which is why it is so remarkable when Mr and Mrs Parker or Sanditon have an accident at the top of the hill near the Heywood home; the carriage they are riding in topples over, and Mr Parker is injured. The Heywoods invite them to spend the night in their home, so that Mr Parker can rest, and so that their damaged carriage can be repaired.The Parkers end up staying for two weeks; during this time, Mr Parker's chief topic of conversation is his beloved home town of Sanditon. It used to be a tiny dot on the map, a fishing village known only to its inhabitants, but over the past couple of years, Mr Parker and his business partner, Lady Denham have been trying to turn Sanditon into a fashionable vacation spot. Mr Parker is particularly proud of the bathing machines he has installed so that people can change into their swimwear and wade into the ocean. He has also had a new home constructed for his family, and they enjoy their own personal bathing machine there.
