- Hardcover: 304 pages
- Publisher: John Murray; 1st Edition edition (14 Sep 2006)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0719566088
- ISBN-13: 978-0719566080
- Product Dimensions: 23.6 x 14.6 x 3.4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 203,021 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Visit the Amazon.co.uk Trade-In Store for more details. |
Product details |
Product Description
Review
'[Profumo] has written an elegantly sorrowful account of his family’s great shame'
(Peter McKay, Evening Standard )‘Painful to write, moving to read, this beautifully crafted account will not be the final word on the Profumo affair, but shows that, behind its continuing fascination as the arch political scandal lies a long trail of human misery’
(Independent on Sunday )
‘Elegiac and evocative volume’ Sunday Telegraph / Seven
(Sunday Telegraph / Seven )‘It certainly has all the excitement, neurosis and edginess of a book that needed to be written… gritty, heartfelt and honest…it is a real book, by a real writer, about real people’
(Mail on Sunday (Book of the Week review by Craig Brown, 5 out of 5 stars) )‘An intimate, perky, donnishly literate memoir... It is a rather infectious read, elegantly written, often funny, sometimes caustic’
(Times )‘Gentle, touching, wry’
(Guardian )‘Profumo’s book… restores a context to a story that has so long had a life of its own. And it offers a measured and affecting insight into what it was like to be a seven-year-old in the eye of the original tabloid storm’
(Observer )‘A fascinating, gripping tale’
(Daily Express )‘David Profumo is an outstandingly witty, stylish and original writer. In this bracingly honest and frequently sparkling family memoir, he has really excelled himself. Indeed, I would not hesitate to describe Bringing the House Down as a masterpiece’
(Hugh Massingberd, Country Life )‘Brilliant, intimate radio’
(New Statesman, on Radio 4 Book of the Week )‘His family memoir is clear-eyed, beautifully written, often painful to read, and sometimes very funny indeed’
(Stephen Robinson, Daily Telegraph )‘Intensely observant and acutely perceptive ... hugely literate and sophisticated’
(Peregrine Worsthorne, Spectator )‘Searingly honest… David Profumo has written a revelatory book, and all others that purport to deal with the scandal are at a stroke rendered redundant in their narrowness. This one excels, above all, as a study of human nature in some of its most intriguing and arresting forms’
(Simon Heffer, Literary Review )
‘[An] honest and compelling book … Bringing the House Down is notably well written, vivid and easy to read.’
(Ian Gilmour, London Review of Books )‘An intimate, unsentimental account of the 20th century’s greatest sex scandal’
(Sebastian Shakespeare, Tatler )
Product Description
David Profumo was just seven when his father, who had been Secretary of State for War, resigned from the Macmillan government. Despite the furore and humiliation that followed, his parents famously stayed together – and now, forty years on, their son has written this long-awaited account of their family life before, during and after the sensational events of 1963.
Drawing on diaries, letters and other memorabilia never before made public, Bringing The House Down describes their background and careers before they met. After an apprenticeship in Hollywood during her teenage years, the beautiful Valerie Hobson went on to star in numerous British films before her stage triumph in ‘The King and I’; John Profumo had been the youngest MP during the Second World War, became a Brigadier at the age of thirty, and was rapidly rising through the ranks of the Conservative party. This is the story of their complicated courtship and volatile marriage, the destruction of their glamorous lifestyle and their endurance of the aftermath.
By turns intimate, caustic and poignant, their only child’s personal memoir of their three lives together not only puts flesh on the bones of the old family skeleton but also offers a remarkable portrait of a love affair that somehow survived in a world turned upside down.
Tag this product(What's this?)Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organise and find favourite items. |
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
The last word on the Profumo affair?,
By
This review is from: Bringing the House Down: A Family Memoir (Hardcover)
Warning: this review contains spoilers.
This is an enjoyable account of the life and times of the author's parents, actress Valerie Hobson and politician John Profumo. Obviously, the 1963 'Profumo affair' is discussed, but I found his parents' lives, outside of the affair, more interesting, covering politics and entertainment, two areas of life which are, in many ways, similar. Hobson was an actress of some note appearing in the film 'Kind Hearts and Coronets' and enjoying a substantial West End run in 'The King and I'. I feel she sacrificed her career following her marriage and the last years of her life lacked meaning and direction. Her husband was a lightweight politician who realised the benefit on his career of having an attractive well-connected wife. Following the fallout from his affair - no, let's be realistic here - his brief fling with Christine Keeler, he underwent a catharsis, and devoted the rest of his life to charitable works. The author puts the Profumo affair into context. I have always thought the whole thing was a 'storm in a teacup', and the idea that it led to to the fall of the Macmillan Government is preposterous. David Profumo talks about the effect the affair had on his own life; perhaps the most upsetting aspect being that he was packed off to Eton with no knowledge of the affair and his father's role in it. Schoolboys being schoolboys, he soon learnt about it quickly. In this instance, I find his parents' attitude astonishing: naive certainly; arguably, cruel. There is one major factor which marred my enjoyment of this book and that is the question of the author's erudite vocabulary. Having to consult frequently a dictionary to elucidate his meaning, broke the flow of my reading and became irritating. Perhaps the author should have taken more notice of his mother's words about his 'fussy-fanny attitude to writing' (p270).
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Profu-Who?,
By
This review is from: Bringing the House Down: A Family Memoir (Hardcover)
I suppose that the "younger generation", meaning those born much after me --1956-- or the author might be puzzled as to who was John Profumo, let alone Christine Keeler, Captain Ivanov (GRU), Stephen Ward, "Lucky" Gordon and the other players in that Scandal (thinking of the eponymous film of 1980). This was the political embarrassment which destroyed the Conservative government of the early 1960's, though today (when Attorneys-General and Cabinet Ministers commit actual crimes and stay in office) Profumo's sin of "lying to the House" would be spun into touch within hours.
According to the blurb, the author, John Profumo's son, is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, no less, as well as being a freelance journalist and novelist with two works of fiction to his credit. Perhaps so, but I agree with another reviewer about his poor writing in parts. And he does have one annoying habit (typically Old Etonian? cf. Boris Johnson) of using several Latin, Greek or obscure English words on the same page. Why? So that we know he was well-educated? The story is not badly told but flags toward the end, when the author includes a few pages about his own later life. He notes that his aged mother castigated the English class system and inherited wealth and one does wonder to what extent that was a criticism both of her husband, a dull stupid fellow who nonetheless became a WW2 Brigadier (Staff) and later Minister for War until 1962 and ? her son. Perhaps it was a criticism of "Trustafarian" son, too?
5.0 out of 5 stars
What a brave man,
By
This review is from: Bringing the House Down: A Family Memoir (Hardcover)
I had the great good fortune to be in the same house as David at Eton, he being two years my senior. He had left for Oxford before I became aware of the Profumo Affair in any detail and I then began to wonder how he had dealt with his peers when first at the school given that he had arrived there with scant knowledge of what had actually gone on in 1961 - 1963.
Eton is or was the cruellest place where, when you first arrive, the slightest personal weakness is picked up on and used against you remorselessly.It is the candour and absence of bitterness in the book that I found so moving, but this is entirely typical of the man I knew nearly 40 years ago. When he was in a position to pick on this new Etonian, he did not and was at all times friendly, amusing and an example to follow in all respects. My admiration for David Profumo grew robustly stronger from my reading this wonderful book.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews |
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
