#Mitford Family

[frary-us]

[frary-us]

Love seeing Toby more in focus in these photos than in Vanity Fair.😍👍

Attore inglese TOBY REGBO Toby Regbo Italia #englishactor #tobyregbo #tobyregboitalia #outrageous #tommitford

[dreamofstarlight]

Bobby and Ethel visiting Chatsworth accompanied by the Duchess of Devonshire

[dukeofriven]

So on one hand older men hitting young women is pretty bad, and striking your own daughter is super bad. On the other hand she wants the freedom... to run off and marry the Space Gauleiter of Earth? I mean I'd have slapped Diana and Unity Mitford too had I had the opportunity. We should all be so fortunate.

[avidreadersandemergingwriters]

The Mitford Affair, by Marie Benedict.

They were the Kardashians of the 1920’s. The Bright Young Things, as they were known, were the younger sons and daughters of the aristocracy and middle class people climbing the social ladder. And the titled, glamorous Mitford sisters were in the thick of it all.

By the 1930’s, all the fun came to a screeching halt as Britain and the rest of the world became mired in The Great Depression.

And with economic instability slithered fascism and communism and a rapid schism in the Mitford family.

Two sisters become ardent fascists, two become just as passionate communists and the moderate eldest sister Nancy was caught in the middle.

As things escalate and Britain lurches into WWII, Nancy must navigate loyalty to her family and allegiance to her country.

Full post in bio.

[frary-us]

Unfortunately, Toby's name has been misstated numerous times in the past.😞 It's usually "Tony" instead of Toby. He's joked about it before and his The Last Kingdom friend, Arnas, teased him with "Tony Famebo" & the costume designer nicknamed him "Tony Regal." That was done lovingly and for fun. 🤗😂

"Begbo" was new to me. It frustrates & annoys me, too, that poor Toby has to put up with this in official career coverage.😠 I'm glad Vanity Fair corrected the typo -- and thanks for your input to the writer.😊👍

=============================================

"moryan663dWait, I just wrote about the Mitford sisters for @vanityfair?? What is even happening!?

I have always been fascinated by the Mitford sisters, some of who made great choices, others who made abhorrent decisions. They lived in politically turbulent times, and they certainly made some choices. And they decisively ignored the dictum that a well-bred woman almost never appears in the newspapers. There are so many interesting books by them and about them, and now, finally, finally, there is going to be a TV series about them, on @britboxtv — and you *know* what a BritBox fan I am so this is the convergence of so many of my interests! And how about this cast, which is full of notable actors, including the reliably excellent Anna Chancellor and James Purefoy 🙌🏻🔥

It was truly terrific to speak to Bessie Carter, who plays Nancy Mitford (and is SERVING LOOKS in these photos) and Sarah Williams, who wrote the series Outrageous, and also to have these exclusive photos in Vanity Fair. More pictures and the full story in the link here in my bio. 👑. x #outrageous #mitford #mitfordsisters#britbox #uktv". (x)

So this photo of Toby REGBO and his other castmates from his upcoming film “OUTRAGEOUS” dropped today. And the idiot reporter or publisher(yes I called them an idiot and no I won’t apologize) got Toby’s name wrong 😡 it’s really starting irritate me how people just disregard him as an actor. He’s so good and so underrated that he deserves more respect/recognition than he’s given. And yes that starts with not only cast mates but REPORTERS TOO!! I mean how hard is it to spell check? A simple IMDb search would’ve given this said reporter the proper spelling of his surname😤 UGHHH

[hedgehog-moss]

as a "beginner" dipping g his toes into nonfiction but as someone who otherwise enjoys pretty much any genre (and as such is open to anything, from educational to biographical), what would you recommend?

Oh, that's vast! You are forcing me to cast a wide net and give a thousand suggestions... I'm going to limit myself to 3 ideas per category so I don't go overboard.

Nature / environment: Carl Safina's Beyond Words: What Animals Think and Feel; Paul Kingsnorth's Confessions of a Recovering Environmentalist and Other Essays; Robin Wall Kimmerer's Gathering Moss

Science / medicine: Holly Tucker's Blood Work: A Tale of Medicine and Murder in the Scientific Revolution, Richard Preston's The Hot Zone, Paul Lockhart's A Mathematician's Lament (I mostly enjoyed the first part in which he rants about the current state of maths education and says maths deserves better) or Carl Sagan's Cosmos (if I write "or" between two book recs it only counts as one)

Language: I liked Arika Okrent's In the Land of Invented Languages so much that I won't even nominate anyone else in this category. ... But I'll make up for it by allowing myself additional titles in the next one:

Politics / society / culture: Jodi Kantor's She Said, Frederik & Bastian Obermayer's The Panama Papers, Caroline Criado-Pérez's Invisible Women, Patrick Keefe's Empire of Pain, Michael Meyer's The Last Days of Old Beijing, Barbara Demick's Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea

History: I'm realising that everything that comes to mind is horribly bleak: Jack London's The People of the Abyss, Timothy Egan's The Worst Hard Time, Svetlana Alexievich's Voices from Chernobyl... I've read some fun historical nonfiction in French but right now the only thing I can think of in English that's not depressing is Matthew Goodman's The Sun and the Moon, the subtitle of which is: The Remarkable True Account of Hoaxers, Showmen, Dueling Journalists, and Lunar Man-Bats in Nineteenth-Century New York.

About literature: Wisława Szymborska's Nonrequired Reading, Alexandra Johnson's The Hidden Writer: Diaries and the Creative Life, Alberto Manguel's The Library at Night.

(I was going to include a philosophy section but I realised I p much exclusively read philosophy in French or Spanish, and it's usually recent stuff that's not been translated... But if you've never read philosophy I recommend Jostein Gaarder's Sophie's World, it's a novel about the history of philosophy so it straddles the line between fiction and nonfiction)

Biographies / memoirs: that's the majority of the nonfiction I read so it could be a whole post, but some I've really enjoyed are: Beryl Markham's West with the Night; Gerald Durrell's My Family & Other Animals; Fatema Mernissi's Dreams of Trespass, Ryszard Kapuściński's Travels with Herodotus, Mary S. Lovell's The Sisters (about the six Mitford sisters; if you enjoy it I'd recommend reading their correspondence next—Charlotte Mosley's "The Mitfords: Letters Between Six Sisters")

Miscellaneous: Emmanuel Carrère's The Adversary; Alexandra Horowitz's On Looking. Currently I'm reading Joan Druett's Island of the Lost because it's nice to relativise your own problems in life by reminding yourself that at least you're not stuck on a subantarctic island having to bludgeon sea lions and eat your own crewmates for survival.

[mydear-corinthian]

Dirty Diana || Thomas Shelby x reader

Synopsis: After the war, you and Tommy were separated leaving you in London alone with no money at all. Pairing: Thomas Shelby x reader , Tommy Shelby x reader Warnings: SMUT +18, mentions of prostitution & misogynist, p in v, unprotected sex, dirty talk Notes: I saw this Dirty Diana edit of Tommy Shelby & Diana Mitford so why not do a fic about MJ's song?? I'm so happy that Dirty Diana is getting popular and getting the hype that it deserves !! This fic is terribly written and rushed :c Click here to see the MAIN MASTERLIST Click here to see the PEAKY BLINDERS MASTERLIST Click here to see the CILLIAN MURPHY MASTERLIST

Tommy and you were together before the war. His family happily accepted you and eventually treat you as one.

Unfortunately, you two parted ways following the battle. While you were stuck in London trying to become a banker, he was back in his hometown.

As a woman, landing a career like that hasn't been normalized yet. Often, men claim that it was a "man's job" exclusively. You met all the standards perfectly, but in the end, you were not hired. You were left with nothing as a result. No family, no home, and no money.

That's when you started working as a prostitute, something you never thought you would do. It was your last option since you could no longer survive without money. Given that you were making far more money at the job, you cannot complain about it. Constantly receiving enormous sums of shillings in a single night.

You decided to change your name, Diana.

Every night you wait on the busy streets of London for customers. Bending over their vehicle, seducing them.

It wasn't easy and it will never be easy to be working in this line of work. You've been sleeping with young, old, single, married, or even widowed men for money.

It was the usual night. Waiting for new customers as you stood on the busy streets outside of a hotel. Your black dress perfectly traced your curves, a white shoulder fur covered your elbows.

You finally saw a car stopping in front of you. A man wearing a neat navy suit, a newsboy hat decorated his hair, a cigarette burning between his lips.

Due to his hat, you cannot fully see who he was, only his mouth. You walked seductively towards the man's car, bending over the window. "Sir, I have to go home 'cause I'm so tired you see..?" you ask, pretending to be exhausted. "I hate sleeping alone, why don't you take me?" He took a bill out of his pockets and showed it to you. "My place. The hotel." he plainly said.

Seeing the large amount of bill made your eyes widened. Never in your job had you encountered a man giving you this big amount of money for one night.

"Well, I'll see what I can do with that, sir," he exited the vehicle, walking towards the hotel as you followed him. The anonymous man was walking in front of you so you cannot see his face.

You couldn't shake the thought of Tommy, no matter how many men you slept with. You still have feelings for him. You was hoping he could find you and look for you. Your first love was and is him. He was everything to you. It's not that you two split up; rather, it was more that you stopped seeing one another, no goodbye's or hello's after the war. You believed that his 'breakup' was final. that he had already had enough of your relationship. While a part of you believes he is better off without you, the other half of you longs to visit him in Birmingham. That he's already forgotten you.

The both of you were already inside his luxurious hotel room. It wasn't really that tidy but it was manageable.

The anonymous man finally removed his hat, showing his full face at you. As soon as you saw him, your eyes widened and your heart sank.

"Tommy?" you shockingly asked.

"(Y/n)." he greeted plainly.

"How did you- How did you found me?"

He actually haven't moved on from you too. Tommy tried to marry someone for you to leave his mind but that didn't worked for him as well. He just doesn't feel the same feeling that he was with his current wife than you. He wants to relive that feeling and he is hoping that he will be with you again.

"I searched for you. I searched every spot in Birmingham and you weren't there. And so I found you here. In London," he said. "And I know about your job, Diana."

His deep and sultry voice always gets you. Having the sudden desire to take him, make you his, and just be with him.

"How about you stay with me, tonight?" he asked. 

"Oh Tommy, I'm all yours," you answered. Your lips meeting his, passionately tasting him. Tommy's hands roamed all around your small back, allowing the kiss to get deeper and deeper.

He suddenly stopped, pulling his face away. "My wife is at home tonight, she's probably worried tonight. I haven't told her I'm alright." he sighed, walking up to the telephone on the desk just beside the door. He rolled the numbers before speaking. 

Before he said something again, you heard a woman's voice on the telephone, screaming at him. Tommy's wife was mad.

Suddenly, you grabbed the telephone, hearing the voice of his wife. The speaker was on your ear, "He's not coming back, he's sleeping with me,"

You dropped the telephone harshly, smiling at him. "Are you not worried she'll leave you?" you asked, your fingers tapping his chest seductively. Tommy's lips found yours again. The kiss is turning harshly and messier. "It's alright, she was using me for money anyways," he said in between kisses. "And Polly didn't approved my relationship with her but we got married anyway,"

"God, I've been waiting for you," your hands found its way to his hair, crumpling it as you felt his tongue explore your mouth. You moaned in between kisses, eager for more. 

You pushed him into the king-sized bed's soft mattress. You unbutton your wrinkled shirt while leaving your bra on as you crawl from his legs to his hips. He showed how hard he was by the way his pants were rising. Tommy's breath hitched, his skin heats up.

"Where have you been, my darling?" he breathly asked, cupping your cheeks once again to examine your face, processing what is happening right now. You're back. You're here. 

Slowly, your hips rocked on his boner, the friction making your eyes roll. Tommy swallowed hard, feeling the sensation that's happening. "I've missed you, Tom," 

You continued to stroke the hard swell beneath his pants with a look of enticing eagerness, every stroke a whispered promise of something more. You carefully and slowly removed his belt buckle, the metal clasp giving way to your touch with a gentle click. With careful care, your fingertips traced the fabric of his pants, revealing the shapes of his buried need as you undid each button. Gentle yet focused.

A rush of electricity shot through Tommy as her hands discovered his shaft, igniting every nerve ending with a burning passion. You moved his cock up and down with such delicate strokes; it was a rhythmic dance that left him panting, his chest rising and falling in time with your motions.

"Oh god, you're so good at this," he praised. 

Your touch was like a kiss from heaven; it sent electric sparks of need shooting through him, burning an inferno of desire. His breath caught in his throat with every stroke, the melody of pleasure surrounding him so intensely that he was unable to resist, his moans echoing at the limits of his arousal.

He finally came, his white seed spurted all over the mattress and your hands, staining them You chuckled. 

Suddenly, Tommy switched positions, he's now on top of you. "You think we're done?" he asked, his fingers touched your clit, sending shivers all around your body due to the sudden touch. 

"Oh god!" you moaned. 

His fingertips tracing passionate patterns over the fabric that covered your aching core, your back arched in ecstasy as he increased his speed driven by an early desire. Your body trembled with anticipation with every round move, a burning desire that cried out to be let out. Time appeared to stop still as his touch danced over you in the heat of passion, each movement an ode to the unbearable depths of his desire.

You moaned out loud, feeling your orgasm coming. "Tom - I'm gonna .. oh god!"

His movements stopped unexpectedly, leaving you on the verge of euphoria and desperate for release. A line appeared on your forehead as a wave of opposing emotions passed over you, your need pounding against the limits his seductive pause forced.

"Ah, not yet," his husky voiced rang to your ears.

Tommy removed your underwear, showing how wet you were from him fingering you. He aligned his shaft in front of your cunt before you fully took him, making you moan. 

You felt full just from his cock. His warm cock filled you, making him push in even further. Your eyes closed, your head rolling back. 

"So fucking tight," he exhaled deeply. His rough hands gripped your hips making him pound in to you harshly, hitting your sensitive spots all over and over. 

"No one ever pleasured you this good huh?" 

Sweat was streaming down his strained brow, reflecting the fever that was pumping through his body. The air in his hotel room pumped with the sound of your lewd moans and his sultry groans, echoes swirling passionately together and filling the room with a euphoric atmosphere.

His trusts became faster and harsher. His and your skin slapped together, earning a loud sound. 

You felt your orgasm coming up again making you moan louder, seeing nothing but starts and feel like you've been drugged by the most pleasurable medicine there is out there. You clenched on his cock, indicating that you were close. 

"Tommy, I'm gonna cum," 

"Yeah? Cum then, love," he demanded.

You both reached the your high of ecstasy with a few last, powerful thrusts, your bodies combining in a melody of pleasure. During that moment of explosive release, when your senses were overwhelmed by a rush of sensations, you felt him spill out his essence into you, filling you to the overflowing limit with his ecstatic warmth. Every muscle clenched with fine pleasure as your climax came over you in waves of joy, your combined passion setting off an inferno of desire that swallowed you both completely.

Tommy pulled out before dropping his body beside you, panting hard. 

"Come back to me," he whispered. 

"Oh Tommy. I never left you."

[rebeccasteventaylor]

I despise Lady Mowbray. There I said it. She’s the very epitome of the rich people in this country who believe anyone else is there specifically to serve them at the cost of their health, wellbeing, livelihood and yes, their lives too. Their families have been here forever, they own half the land and they genuinely believe the rest of us are lucky to be able to lick their boots. Them hunting the catering staff is not a surprise, it’s very much the kind of thing they do.

The real monster is the caterer, who when given a chance, decides not to protect his friends and colleagues but turns on them instead. I think that’s the real horror of this casement - not Lady Mowbray, behaving as her family’s behaved for generations, but the caterer who decides to behave just like her.

(And that’s why politics in this country is so fucked up, for a little social context).

Anyway, the implication that she knows the Bouchards in Cheshire shows that the Bouchards are the same kind of over-privileged pricks. The kind of people to produce a government minister every generation. (And an army officer and it used to be the third would go into the church but now they become business entrepreneurs).

Interestingly, these same kind of families often produce a rebellious daughter who go against everything the family stands for (look at the Mitford girls for example).

(And I also think Gertrude would despise Lady Mowbray. Gertrude fights. Lady Mowbray takes. And then I hope Gertrude would brutally pipe murder her. Ooh - it could still happen…)

EDIT - just want to mention - as a character she’s brilliant, everything that I hate in real life condensed into a horror character and doing what horror does best - shows us the real horror of authority

[heeahheeya]

WHAT IF GRACE HAD ALIVED AFTER S3E2...?

Here's my personal imagination:

(Hope you understand English is not my

language)

1. Tommy and Grace would have at least 3-4 children.

2. Their children, including Charlie, would have grown up VERY beautiful and attractive: their sons as Prince Charming🫅 and daughters as English Rose👸🌹

3. Tommy Shelby would NEVER cheated but be royal to his beautiful wife. Of course NOT fuck other women, including Lizzie (need to trust him...)

4. Whenever Tommy has conflicts with his family (of course Polly well...), Grace would become a mediator. She encourages her husband to calm down and talk. You should remember her quote in Season 1: "Men should talk"

5. It would be a kind of interesting show this attractive Shelby couple have a confrontation against Oswald Mosley and Diana Mitford. Tommy would be much more confident, and Grace would handle them as this fancy ex-agent crown plays with their weak points.

6. It's quite common that married couples have arguement. Tommy and Grace would do also. However they reconcile so fast. Having HOT sex is one of methods how they make reconciliation.

7. I think Polly would never forgive or accept her as she had promised to Grace and herself, but admitted her "foxy" niece-in-law is competent at the same time.

8. Still, Tommy and Grace would be so HOT. They are still sexually attractive, so that they seduce each other. Every night is their own pornography, named "50 Shades of Shelby"🔞🔞🔞🔥🔥🔥

9. Both of them would be successful in their own career.

10. In conclusion, Tommy Shelby would be much happier and comfortable at least as he stands nearby Grace. That is the thing...

[teamwindsorroyals]

Source: Old History Memories/FB

Deborah Cavendish the Duchess of Devonshire (1920-2014) and her husband Andrew Cavendish, the Duke of Devonshire and their two children; Peregrine and Emma. The family were photographed by Norman Parkinson for Vogue magazine, in August 1952.

Debo as she was affectionately known, was the youngest of seven siblings. She has five sisters Nancy, Pamela, Diana, Unity, Jessica and a brother, Tom. Her death in 2014 as the last of the clan, signalled the end of an era which had spanned 110 years of the Mitford girls capturing society.

Her parents, David, 2nd Baron Redesdale and his wife Sydney were for the best part penniless and eccentric aristocrats. School for the girls was frowned upon, in case they should develop thick calves from playing hockey (Tom, who spent time away studying at Eton, was a Barrister and musician, later killed in Burma in 1945). Amongst other things, linen napkins were abandoned because of the cost of laundering them, and the children were forced to follow a kosher diet on the premises that cancer was less prevalent among Jews. The girls were very hands on and practical at home, developing enquiring minds as they were essentially left to their own devices. This made them ever more appealing when they entered society. Of the sisters, Jessica, Nancy and Deborah became writers.

Their combination of beauty, brains and humour catapulted them to celebrities status and they remained continually courted by the press covering stories of affairs, notoriety and extreme politics.

Diana’s affair with fascist leader Sir Oswald Mosley caused her to leave her marriage to Britain’s wealthiest man at the time, Irish brewing heir, Bryan Guinness. Unity followed her infatuation with Hitler to Germany and died from an attempted suicide. Jessica’s communist support of the Spanish Civil War led her to flee to Spain at age 18, eventually settling in the US. Nancy became a Dior wearing socialist, who left her marriage and moved to France where she indulged in a doomed affair with Charles de Gaulle's right-hand man, Gaston Palewski. Pamela, married the millionaire scientist Derek Jackson and sought of a quieter life out of the limelight. At the time, 15 year-old Debo, who had a crush on Derek, fainted when she heard the news.

Much like the Queen Mother, Debo was looking forward to a life of relative obscurity by marrying the second son of the Duke of Devonshire, Andrew Cavendish in 1941. Unexpectedly, when the 10th Duke died in 1950, they found themselves the 11th Duke and Duchess of Devonshire. Inheriting Chatsworth, Hardwick Hall, Lismore Castle and Bolton Abbey. Death duties meant they donated Hardwick Hall to the nation and precious works of art were sold as Andrew negotiated endlessly, until the debt was finally settled in 1974.

Their lives changed when Billy Hartington, Andrew’s elder brother and heir, was killed during the Second World War by a sniper's bullet in 1944. His death only four months after his marriage to the very popular Kathleen 'Kick' Kennedy, JFK's sister. Four years later, Kick died in a plane crash and is buried in the churchyard at Edensor on the family estate.

Debo redecorated Chatsworth which had previously been leased to a girl’s school, opened it up to the public and spent 54 years of her life there. Her initiatives included the Chatsworth Farmyard – set up to provide people of all ages and backgrounds with the opportunity to learn about farming, food production and traditional landscapes; Chatsworth Farm Shop; and the Orangery gift shop. A pioneer of her time, it paved the way for the commercialisation of other farm estate businesses like Daylesford and Highgrove Farm shops.

Debo moved into Derbyshire vicarage on the death of her husband and assuming the title Dowager Duchess of Devonshire.

Writers of period dramas and historical fiction have looked to the world of the Mitfords sisters for inspiration. Julian Fellowes’ Violet, the Dowager Countess of Grantham in Downton Abbey is said to be based on Nancy’s wicked humour.

Diana was portrayed by Evelyn Waugh in Vile Bodies, Deborah was painted by Lucian Freud and Jessica had a cardboard coffin named after her. John Betjeman - who at one time was in love with Pamela - celebrated the sisters in a verse, the first lines of which read: "The Mitford girls! The Mitford Girls/ I love them for their sins".

Her last publication before her death was her autobiography, ‘Wait For Me!’. See less See less

[ravenkings]

biopics are generally a highly overrated genre imo, but this is a list of people who i would actually be interested in seeing a biopic about:

jack parsons

marianne faithfull

the mitford family

aleister crowley (lmao that shit would be wild)

prince

arthur rimbaud

josephine baker

[laura-the-yellow-cat]

Mitford the humanoid boy doll (My NEW MSA X FNAF Enemy OC)

Age: ???

Family: Varian Masters (his father/creator), Unknown mother (missing), Unknown siblings

Alignment: Good (in the past), Bad

Goals:

Friends: Purple Guy/William Afton/Springtrap/Springbonnie and Victor Anderson/Vladdy the forgotten Animatronic Demon/Vampire/Ghost Hybrid, His eleven victims-kids (befored, in the past), Bert Willam/Ewald the evil mastermind criminal TV Guy

Enemies: The Bullies (Killed and Deceased), Sliver the blue tiger, Hexa the rockstar dragon, Miss Kindness/Unkindness, Rangey the farmer raccoon, Percy the pirate sailor parrot, Lew-Lew the singer lion, Celeste the humanoid princess, Tacy the Cheerleader Unicorn, Finley the green brave bear, Samson the humanoid sun and Mack the humanoid moon/His eleven victims-kids, Susan Walterson, Tia, Charlie, Freddy Fazbear, Markus, Bonnie the Bunny, Cream, Chica the Chicken, Foxy the Pirate Fox, Laura (in animatronic Yellow Cat from), Loxy, Golden Freddy, Black Charro, Gia, Sammy, Mindy Pepper, Maisy Pepper and Izzy, Sarah, Phillip and all foes

Likes: Befriends with the normal kids, Comes with his father, Sleepovers (in the past), King Boo (his favourite character), killing the bullies and every his victims, tries to get his father's magic restaurant palace and theme park called "Silver's Magic Restaurant Palace and Theme Park" back from being abandoned,

Dislikes: Being bullied, losing his family, losing his anger problems, Not befriend with the normal kids (in the past), His victims are escaping from him, his father's magic restaurant palace and theme park called "Silver's Magic Restaurant Palace and Theme Park" got abandoned,

@sfcabanasstarcgs and @mysteryideasgroup

[dreamofstarlight]

reading debo mitford's memoirs and i just love the small little fact that king charles and ted planted a tree together at chatsworth lol.

also did you know her and husband were the first (and maybe only?) british nobility at the inauguration? very cool.

Chuck just casually popping in while Ted was visiting is one of my favorite little stories. I did not know that they were the first nobility at an inauguration but it makes sense!

[fashionbooksmilano]

Great Houses Modern Aristocrats

by James Reginato

Photographs by Jonathan Becker, Foreword by Viscount Linley

Rizzoli Int., New York 2016, 256 pages, Hardcover, ISBN 978-0-8478-4898-0

euro 70,00

email if you want to buy booksinprogressmilano@yahoo.it

This stunning book presents the intriguing stories and celebrated histories of some of the leading families of Great Britain and Ireland and the opulent residences that have defined their heritages. The history of England is inextricably linked with the stories of its leading aristocratic dynasties and the great seats they have occupied for centuries. As the current owners speak of the critical roles their ancestors have played in the nation, they bring history alive. All of these houses have survived great wars, economic upheavals, and, at times, scandal. Filled with stunning photography, this book is a remarkably intimate and lively look inside some of Britain’s stateliest houses, with the modern-day aristocrats who live in them and keep them going in high style. This book presents a tour of some of England’s finest residences, with many of the interiors shown here for the first time. It includes Blenheim Palace—seven acres under one roof, eclipsing the splendor of any of the British royal family’s residences—property of the Dukes of Marlborough; the exquisite Old Vicarage in Derbyshire, last residence of the late Dowager Duchess of Devonshire (née Deborah Mitford); Haddon Hall, a vast crenellated 900-year-old manor house belonging to the Dukes of Rutland that has been called the most romantic house in England; and the island paradises on Mustique and St. Lucia of the 3rd Baron Glenconner. This book is perfect for history buffs and lovers of traditional interior design and English country life.

22/02/24

[rockislandadultreads]

Women's History Month: Historical Fiction Recommendations

Celebrate Women's History Month by checking out these historical fiction picks!

The Mitford Affair by Marie Benedict

Between the World Wars, the six Mitford sisters dominate the English political, literary, and social scenes. Though they've weathered scandals before, the family falls into disarray when Diana divorces her husband to marry a fascist leader and Unity follows her sister's lead, inciting rumors that she's become Hitler's own mistress. Novelist Nancy Mitford is the only member of her family to keep in touch with Diana and Unity after their desertion, so it falls to her to act when her sisters become spies for the Nazi party. 

Clytemnestra by Costanza Casati

You were born to a king, but you marry a tyrant. You stand by helplessly as he sacrifices your child to placate the gods. You watch him wage war on a foreign shore, and you comfort yourself with violent thoughts of your own. This was not the life you ever deserved. And this will not be your undoing. Slowly, you plot. For you understood something long ago that the others never did. If power isn't given to you, you have to take it for yourself.

Song of a Captive Bird by Jasmin Darznik

All through her childhood in Tehran, Forugh is told that Iranian daughters should be quiet and modest. She is taught only to obey, but she always finds ways to rebel. It’s during the summer of 1950 that Forugh’s passion for poetry really takes flight - and that tradition seeks to clip her wings. Forced into a suffocating marriage, Forugh runs away and falls into an affair that fuels her desire to write and to achieve freedom and independence. Forugh’s poems are considered both scandalous and brilliant, and the power of her writing only grows stronger amid the upheaval of the Iranian revolution. 

The President's Wife by Tracey Enerson Wood

Socialite Edith Bolling has been in no hurry to find a new husband since she was widowed, preferring to fill her days with good friends and travel. But the enchanting courting of President Woodrow Wilson wins Edith over and she becomes the First Lady of the United States. While uncomfortable for the fiercely independent Edith, she soon warms to the new role and is soon indispensable to her husband's presidency. When Woodrow's delicate health takes a dramatic turn for the worse, she all but assumes the presidency herself in order to preserve both his progress and his reputation.