- Hardcover: 192 pages
- Publisher: W&N; First edition (12 Nov 2009)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0297854518
- ISBN-13: 978-0297854517
- Product Dimensions: 3.2 x 14 x 22.9 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 127,336 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Review
"she still lives there, in a way, and remembers it with warmth and charm" (Lewis Jones THE SPECTATOR )
"a jolly little serving of gossip and laughs from the matron of London's decadencia" (THE INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY )
"Killjoys should avoid this book: it convinces us that life, despite its heartbreaks, is tremendous fun" (Belinda Harley DAILY MAIL )
"a jolly little serving of gossip and laughs from the matron of London's decadencia" (THE INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY )
"Killjoys should avoid this book: it convinces us that life, despite its heartbreaks, is tremendous fun" (Belinda Harley DAILY MAIL )
Product Description
Lady Annabel Goldsmith is a daughter of the 8th Marquess of Londonderry. The family fortunes were based on coal-mining. In her enthralling memoirs she told of her aristocratic upbringing with an increasingly eccentric father, a Conservative MP with strong liberal leanings, and a mother who died young from cancer. Her personal account of marrying Mark Birley at 20, the creation of Annabel's Club in Berkeley Square, and then her affair and later marriage to entrepreneur Sir James Goldsmith, enthralled many readers. The club was a huge success from the beginning and remains so into its fourth decade. Annabel had three children with Goldsmith, including Jemima, Zac and Ben, who married into the Rothschild family. But tragedy was never far away: Rupert, her eldest son, died in an accident, and Goldsmith died from cancer after financing a campaign of candidates opposed to the John Major line on the EU at the 1997 general election. This book elegantly describes, in intimate and perceptive essays, pen-portraits of some of the extraordinary figures that entered the Birley and Goldsmith circles - among them, Lord Lambton, Patrick Plunket, John Aspinall, Geoffrey Keating, Lord Lucan, Dominic Elwes and Claus von Bulow. The richness of the narrative is in the particular detail and observation which only a true insider can record.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I knew Annabel Goldsmith had led a really fascinating life and so I was expecting quite a lot. Her life with Jimmy Goldsmith was never dull and her children were all good looking and brim full of potential and energy. I have to say I was rather disappointed by the book. It failed to capture my attention at any point and it just failed to entertain me. It did not even open to the door to the supposedly magical world at Pelham Cottage. I think the author has simply struggled to convey the wonder of the years she spent at this clearly very special house. I failed to be convinced. I failed to be conveyed to this place she held so dear. And I failed to be entertained by the characters and close friends we are introduced to. Perhaps I am getting old.But it is a very gentle and undemanding read and probably one that benefits from more than one reading. A quiet book amidst a life of chaos. Perhaps Pelham Cottage was like that.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
The illustration on the cover and the title sold this book for me. But I was disappointed with the content. Maybe the author used up most of her stories in her previous autobiography, which I have not read, but certainly this one was rather short on pithy anecdotes. The book is divided into 12 chapters, each dealing with a different personality, from beloved daily help Mrs White to David Frost, who played an important part in the author's life. While writing about them she also mentions a great many famous people whom she met in the course of her two marriages (to Mark Birley and James Goldsmith) but often a mention is as far as it goes: "There, to my total surprise, in front of me in the tiny study of Pelham Cottage were the distinguished and controversial Israeli military leader, Moshe Dayan - as ever, wearing his trademark black eye-patch - and his daughter Yael, then rapidly establishing herself as a novelist. Despite the eminence of these unexpected visitors, whom I never met again, I somehow took it all in my stride." That's it.
I would have liked, too, more than a paragraph about the author's son, Robin, who was mauled by a tigress at the age of twelve. What happened to him? This may have been dealt with in the earlier book but I think should have been included in this one too.
Nevertheless this is a pleasant and undemanding read with some interesting passages and photographs and Annabel Goldsmith comes across as an extremely honest and unassuming person whose life, though privileged, has had its share of grief.
I would have liked, too, more than a paragraph about the author's son, Robin, who was mauled by a tigress at the age of twelve. What happened to him? This may have been dealt with in the earlier book but I think should have been included in this one too.
Nevertheless this is a pleasant and undemanding read with some interesting passages and photographs and Annabel Goldsmith comes across as an extremely honest and unassuming person whose life, though privileged, has had its share of grief.
11 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I was so looking forward to reading this book and was most disappointed in the content. It is practically a repeat of the previous book - " Annabel An Unconditional Life".
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