Splendour & squalor

the disgrace and disintegration of three aristocratic dynasties

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Last edited by MARC Bot
January 2, 2023 | History

Splendour & squalor

the disgrace and disintegration of three aristocratic dynasties

  • 0 Ratings
  • 3 Want to read
  • 0 Currently reading
  • 0 Have read

From stately homes and prisons to the House of Lords and Edwardian asylums—the stories, spanning the 20th century, of the disintegrating fortunes of three of Britain’s most illustrious aristocratic dynasties and the scapegraces responsible

Splendour & Squalor traces the disintegration of three aristocratic dynasties through the twentieth century: families who seemingly had everything yet decided to take 'the down-escalator of life.' They include the Montagus, Dukes of Manchester, who had once employed Vanburgh—creator of Blenheim Palace, Churchill's birthplace—to remodel their principal family seat, Kimbolton Castle; shortly before the outbreak of World War II, the Montagus oversaw further renovation—converting the Kimbolton chapel into a bar, and stocking it with glasses decorated with 'pornography of the most interesting kind,' for the benefit of guests like the restless, bisexual Duke of Kent, younger brother of George VI. Four consecutive generations of the family went to jail. The Herveys, Marquesses of Bristol, went inside too, although John Bristol (7th Marquess of Bristol, born 1954; died 1999) spent most of his time investing his inheritance in helicopters, heroin, and—for strictly recreational purposes—handcuffs: a blazing quest for self-gratification which led him into the company of Andy Warhol and Mick Jagger. Splendour & Squalor offers a riveting insight into the disintegration of a once seemingly impregnable elite. The resultant portrait is the authentic Downton Abbey—stripped of gloss, mythology and sentiment, and brought mercilessly up-to-date.

Publish Date
Publisher
Atlantic Books
Language
English
Pages
397

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Cover of: Splendour & squalor
Cover of: Splendour & squalor
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Book Details


Edition Notes

Includes bibliographical references (p. [387]-397).

Published in
London [England]

Classifications

Library of Congress
HT653.G7 S29 2009

The Physical Object

Pagination
397 p. :
Number of pages
397

ID Numbers

Open Library
OL24067100M
Internet Archive
splendoursqualor00scri
ISBN 13
9781843541240
LCCN
2009512938
OCLC/WorldCat
429603704

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Download catalog record: RDF / JSON / OPDS | Wikipedia citation
January 2, 2023 Edited by MARC Bot import existing book
December 25, 2022 Edited by MARC Bot import existing book
October 29, 2020 Edited by MARC Bot import existing book
July 17, 2019 Edited by MARC Bot import existing book
March 2, 2010 Created by ImportBot Imported from Library of Congress MARC record