- Hardcover: 488 pages
- Publisher: W&N (28 Aug 2008)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0297851748
- ISBN-13: 978-0297851745
- Product Dimensions: 23.6 x 16 x 4.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
99,598 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #100 in Books > Biography > Historical > Britain > 1901 Onwards
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Review
'Richard Davenport-Hines's stirring history of Ettie Fane, a woman of sophistication and beauty seemingly blighted with bad luck. The picture of English aristocratic determination, she remains uncowed to the end.' (VOGUE )
'as Richard Davenport-Hines demonstrates triumphantly in this superb biography, Ettie Desborough's life is a compelling and moving story of love and loss as well as an important slice of social history, and deserves to be widely read... The book is a joy to read, sparkling and fresh and full of good things. A real delight.' (Jane Ridley LITERARY REVIEW )
'this intelligent and well-written book... provides a rich and satisfying portrait of an age that now seems infinitely remote' (THE SPECTATOR )
'Davenport-Hines knows his subject well and writes about the period with insight and understanding.' (CATHOLIC HERALD )
'as Richard Davenport-Hines demonstrates triumphantly in this superb biography, Ettie Desborough's life is a compelling and moving story of love and loss as well as an important slice of social history, and deserves to be widely read... The book is a joy to read, sparkling and fresh and full of good things. A real delight.' (Jane Ridley LITERARY REVIEW )
'this intelligent and well-written book... provides a rich and satisfying portrait of an age that now seems infinitely remote' (THE SPECTATOR )
'Davenport-Hines knows his subject well and writes about the period with insight and understanding.' (CATHOLIC HERALD )
Jane Ridley, LITERARY REVIEW
'as Richard Davenport-Hines demonstrates triumphantly in this superb biography, Ettie Desborough's life is a compelling and moving story of love and loss as well as an important slice of social history, and deserves to be widely read... The book is a joy to read, sparkling and fresh and full of good things. A real delight.'
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Compelling social history,
This review is from: Ettie: The Life And World Of Lady Desborough (Paperback)
The beauty of this well written book is its value as social history in a broad sense, not simply pertaining to the immediate concerns of Lady Desborough. Its illustrations of a life of privilege are fascinating to the modern reader, but it also sheds light on an unfamiliar Zeitgeist, namely the respect accorded to politicians,the status enjoyed by Britain in the world, and the devastation wrought by two World Wars.
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Well written biography,
By
This review is from: Ettie: The Intimate Life And Dauntless Spirit Of Lady Desborough (Hardcover)
This is an engagingly written biography of an aristocratic hostess, set mainly in the late 19th and early twentieth centure. Ettie Desborough obviously had great charm and wit, and oiled the wheels of society. The book is sympathetic towards her - perhaps too sympathetic towards her two eldest sons, both killed in the Great War and whilst evidently popular with many of their own social circle, were clearly arrogant young men who bullied others, killed animals and regarded Germans as vermin to be shot (although one, Julian Grenfell, wrote some superb poetry). The book does acknowledge some of these downsides. I think the main problem is that the subject of the book was evidently very popular but ultimately didn't DO anything.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Biography of an Edwardian hostess whose life was riven by grief,
By Jaybird (London, UK) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Ettie: The Intimate Life And Dauntless Spirit Of Lady Desborough (Hardcover)
Ettie is the story of an ambitious social hostess who moved in the highest echelons of political and literary life in Edwardian England.
In an extraordinary life the most striking aspect is how constantly it was touched by bereavement, in a book that brings home the losses suffered by families in World War I. Whilst some of the lists of dinner party companions pall, particularly when unleavened by anecdotes, as sometimes occurs, her steeliness comes through strongly and is extraordinary.
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