Author: Adrian Fort
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 1409028585
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 404
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Book Description
In 1919, Nancy Astor became the first woman to take a seat in parliament. She was not what had been expected. Far from a virago who had suffered for the cause of female suffrage, she was already near the centre of the ruling society that had for so long resisted the political upheavals of the early twentieth century, having married into the family of one of the richest men in the world. She was not even British. She would prove to be a trailblazer and beacon for the generations of women who would follow her into Parliament. This new biography charts Nancy Astor's incredible story, from penury in the American South, to a lifestyle of the most immense riches, from the luxury of Edwardian England, through the 'Jazz Age', and on towards the Second World War: a world of great country estates, lavish town houses and the most sumptuous entertainments, peopled by the most famous and powerful names of the age. But hers was not only the life of power, glamour and easy charm: it was also defined by principles and bravery, by war and sacrifice, by love and bitter disputes. With glorious, page-turning brio, Adrian Fort has brought to life this restless, controversial American dynamo, an unforgettable woman who left a deep and lasting imprint on the political life of our nation.
Author: James Fox
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 0743217004
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 496
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Book Description
The author of the bestseller White Mischief tells the story of the beautiful Langhorne sisters, who lived at the Pinnacle of high and powerful society from the end of the Civil War through the Second World War. Making their way across two continents, they left in their wakes rich husbands, fame, adoration, and scandal. Lizzie, Irene, Nancy, Phyllis, and Nora were born in Virginia to a family impoverished by the Civil War. Their father remade his fortune by collaborating with the Yankees and building rail-roads; the sisters became southern belles and northern debutantes. James Fox draws on unpublished correspondence between the sisters and their husbands, lovers, children, and the powerful and glamorous of their day to construct a plural topography with the scope of a grand novel and the pace of a historical thriller. At its center is the most famous sister, Nancy, who married Waldorf Astor, one of the richest men in the world. Heroic, hilarious, magnetically charming, and a bully, Lady Astor became Britain's first female MP, championing women's rights and the poor. The beautiful Irene married Charles Dana Gibson and was the model for the Gibson Girl. The author's grandmother, Phyllis, married a famous economist, one of the architects of modern Europe. Fox has written an absorbing and spirited, intimate and sweeping account of extraordinary women at the highest reaches of society, their adventures set against the background of a tumultuous century.
Author: Rosina Harrison
Publisher: Viking Adult
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 296
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Book Description
Autobiography about life in domestic service, as personal maid to Nancy, Lady Astor.
Author: Christopher Sykes
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Americans
Languages : en
Pages : 637
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Book Description
Author: Rosina Harrison
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 0091943515
Category : Americans
Languages : en
Pages : 370
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Book Description
"In 1929, Yorkshire lass Rosina Harrison became personal maid to Lady Astor: the first female Member of Parliament to take her seat and wife of one of England's wealthiest lords. Lady Astor was brilliant yet tempestuous, but outspoken Rose gave as good as she got. For 35 years, the battle of wills and wits raged between the two women, until an unlikely friendship began to emerge. "The Lady's Maid" is a captivating insight into the great wealth 'upstairs' but also the endless work 'downstairs', but it is Rose's unique relationship with Lady Astor that makes this book a truly enticing read"--Publisher's description.
Author: Ken Englade
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 9780312923464
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 396
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Book Description
The true story of Elizabeth Haysom and Jens Soering, convicted of the double murder of her parents, Derek and Nancy Haysom.
Author: Meryl Gordon
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
ISBN: 0618893733
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 367
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Book Description
Gordon's powerful, poignant saga goes behind the gates of a powerful American dynasty--the Astors--to tell of three generations' worth of longing and missed opportunities, which ultimately led to the empire's unraveling.
Author: Rachel Reeves
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1788316770
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 353
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Book Description
In 1919 Nancy Astor was elected as the Member of Parliament for Plymouth Sutton, becoming the first woman MP to take her seat in the House of Commons. Her achievement was all the more remarkable given that women (and even then only some women) had only been entitled to vote for just over a year. In the past 100 years, a total of 491 women have been elected to Parliament. Yet it was not until 2016 that the total number of women ever elected surpassed the number of male MPs in a single parliament. The achievements of these political pioneers have been remarkable – Britain has now had two female Prime Ministers and women MPs have made significant strides in fighting for gender equality from the earliest suffrage campaigns to Barbara Castle's fight for equal pay to Harriet Harman's recent legislation on the gender pay gap. Yet the stories of so many women MPs have too often been overlooked in political histories. In this book, Rachel Reeves brings forgotten MPs out of the shadows and looks at the many battles fought by the Women of Westminster, from 1919 to 2019.
Author: Martin Wood
Publisher: Frances Lincoln
ISBN: 0711224293
Category : Design
Languages : en
Pages : 200
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Book Description
Nancy Lancaster, who was born in 1897 into a wealthy Virginian family, became one of the greatest influences on interior decoration and garden design in Great Britain and America in the second half of the 20th century. She created what is known today as the 'English Country House Style' – a mixture of faded colors, chintzes and painted and antique furniture. In the garden, she worked in a formal yet romantic neo-Georgian style, which is still a strong spirit in British garden design. This book examines Nancy's contribution to the arts of interior decoration and garden design by chronicling her own homes and gardens –and her extraordinary life. Mirador, her family's Virginian country house, was to remain her key inspiration throughout her life. Nancy herself, her houses, her gardens and her friends are shown in an intriguing collection of photographs by distinguished photographers of the era, including Horst and Cecil Beaton.
Author: Robert Becker
Publisher: Knopf
ISBN:
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 530
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Book Description
The life and work of Nancy Lancaster "whose inborn decorating genius culminated in her creation of the style (chintz, elegance, cozy clutter) that flourishes today as the English Country look."--Jacket.
