Eccentric Wealth: The Bulloughs of Rum
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An important book for the future of Scotland, and relevant to today and the referendum on independence that is now almost certainly less than three years away --Artwork
'Eccentric Wealth: The Bulloughs of Rum by Alastair Scott (Birlinn) is the work of the born raconteur whose knowledge and love of the Western Isles is tangible.' --Alan Taylor, Scottish Review of Books
'Eccentric Wealth: The Bulloughs of Rum by Alastair Scott (Birlinn) is the work of the born raconteur whose knowledge and love of the Western Isles is tangible.' --Alan Taylor, Scottish Review of Books
Product Description
In Eccentric Wealth, Alastair Scott traces the life of Lancashire industrialist Sir George Bullough in this absorbing biography which explores his family's connection with the Hebridean island of Rum, particularly the building of Kinloch Castle, the most intact preserve of Edwardian high-living to be found in Britain. Based on new information, the book offers a fascinating insight into the life and times of one of the great eccentrics of his age, including the Bullough myths and scandals which continue to make extraordinary reading more than a hundred years later.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
A very detailed, very well laid out biography of an eccentric and very wealthy family in the 19th and 20th Century who built up a large engineering company employing over 5.000 people manufacturing cotton spinning machinery for export all over the World. They bought the Island of Rum, buiding a large mansion and a mausoleum where some prinipal members of the family are buried.Fascinating reading about their amazing lifestyles, extensive travels and of course their scandals. Makes very gripping reading from beginning to end .Extensively researched and providing great detail. I am very glad I did not miss this book.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Alastair Scott's "Eccentric Wealth: The Bulloughs of Rum" is a fascinating and well researched book. Like the author, I would concede there is a great deal of fiction that has built up around Sir George whose inherited wealth came from his father, John, a wealthy industrialist who manufactured looms in Accrington, but not enough that would comfortably rule out, as the author does, any suggestion he might not have not enjoyed sex with men. Alastair Scott writes with some indignation: "Can anything of George's sexuality be extracted from a Christmas card, for goodness' sake?" I would refer to "gay George" more in the context of a post First World War polysexual decadence rather than in any strictly libertarian sense, or even a more modern implication which could justifiably be used to describe George in a postcard showing him dancing in a mini-kilt supported by two men or squeezing his six-foot-five frame into pink cerise jockey vests. Alastair Scott positions himself as a confirmed and unrepentant heterosexual male, with which, I'm sure, given the penalties; George Bullough would've happily colluded. Of George's wife, society belle, Monica Charrington he writes: "Her beauty was such that it would have been nigh on impossible for her to have avoided the countless affairs she is said to have had." However many affairs she might've had, and there is evidence of an affair during her first marriage, the separate sleeping arrangements hardly point to a robustly heterosexual affair between her and George, although they did have one daughter, Hermione.
Sir George's father, John, an arch-Conservative, was a violent bully. Of the many letters he would write to newspapers, this one just about sums him up: "I hate strong-minded women. I think they are enemies of their sex. They are the products of, and the associates of, weak-minded men. I don't like to see my ideal destroyed and transformed into a repulsive creature `half-Margaret and half-Henry'". His marriage lasted 10 years before his wife, Bertha, citing his appalling violence, divorced him and fled the country. Always immaculately dressed, six-foot-five, handsome and with what the author admits to a "narcissistic habit of combing his hair", George later travelled the world, sharing hotel rooms with his `personal secretary' and constant companion for over a decade, Robert Mitchell. Robert was 13 years older than George and organised his `coming of age' party where his 2,000 factory workers were given 2/6d and the day off in Blackpool. Was George really gay? Who knows? But as critical as Alastair Scott is about the myths, he's not beyond contributing to them himself. It was rumoured George had an affair with his father's wife Alexander who was only five years older than him. Scott writes: "The opportunities and incentives for them becoming clandestine lovers were undoubtedly there. That there was such an intimate bond between George and Alexandra may have been based on nothing but gossip but I suspect there was fire beyond the smoke." All the same, the author should be congratulated on his efforts to unmask the truth behind the stories of what really went on at Kinloch Castle. Despite some of my own reservations, he has does a fine job which makes for some compelling reading.
Sir George's father, John, an arch-Conservative, was a violent bully. Of the many letters he would write to newspapers, this one just about sums him up: "I hate strong-minded women. I think they are enemies of their sex. They are the products of, and the associates of, weak-minded men. I don't like to see my ideal destroyed and transformed into a repulsive creature `half-Margaret and half-Henry'". His marriage lasted 10 years before his wife, Bertha, citing his appalling violence, divorced him and fled the country. Always immaculately dressed, six-foot-five, handsome and with what the author admits to a "narcissistic habit of combing his hair", George later travelled the world, sharing hotel rooms with his `personal secretary' and constant companion for over a decade, Robert Mitchell. Robert was 13 years older than George and organised his `coming of age' party where his 2,000 factory workers were given 2/6d and the day off in Blackpool. Was George really gay? Who knows? But as critical as Alastair Scott is about the myths, he's not beyond contributing to them himself. It was rumoured George had an affair with his father's wife Alexander who was only five years older than him. Scott writes: "The opportunities and incentives for them becoming clandestine lovers were undoubtedly there. That there was such an intimate bond between George and Alexandra may have been based on nothing but gossip but I suspect there was fire beyond the smoke." All the same, the author should be congratulated on his efforts to unmask the truth behind the stories of what really went on at Kinloch Castle. Despite some of my own reservations, he has does a fine job which makes for some compelling reading.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This has to be one of the best books I have read for a very long time. The author has spent a great deal of time researching the story and to great affect. Alastair Scott delivers this book with unbelievable detail, so readable and so incredibly addictive, I could not put this book down. Scott's amazing way with this story keeps you wanting to keep turning the page. It is quite an incredible adventure and I would suggest that everyone reads this book. A very rich man, a wonderful island (the island of Rum) an adventure round the world, a hospital ship, excess of money, beating the Emperor of Japan for a marble eagle. This book has everything, a story of family and incredible wealth and the excesses but also the good that was achieved also. What a writer.
Bowled over
Bowled over
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