by Mary S. Lovell
Discussion led by JP
Some background links to get you started:
- The publisher's page for the book
- Graham Erbacher's review in The Australian
- Paula Byrne's review in The Times
- Review by Daisy Goodwin in The Times
- Nicholas Shakespeare's review in The Spectator
- Lisa Hilton's review in The Times Literary Supplement
- The author's own website
What we discussed about the book:
- Is this the story of a house? Or a biography?
- Aly Khan - how fascinating he was?
- Did this story bring 'interesting bits to life'?
- How could we see the author being influenced by her sources as to how to shape the book?
- What is the point of the book? What did we take away from it?
- How was the backdrop of historical events portrayed? (WW2, Great Depression etc)
- What did we think the author's opinion of Churchill was? Which characters did we as readers like/dislike?
- Why do readers continue to be fascinated by this set of people and this era? What is it that captures imaginations?
- How did this book reflect social structures in England?
- Why did we think the post-scripts were included?
Then we were distracted to discuss:
- Class mobility in the early part of the 20th Century - what did it take to breach boundaries?
- Differences between English reviews and non-English reviews of the book - what influences these differences?
- How difficult is it to construct a continuity of narrative when writing non-fiction?
- How quickly huge 'celebrities' are forgotten - e.g. Sheila Milbanke etc. Will the Khardasians ever suffer the same fate?
And in other news:
- We mused about DNA and genetics
Ratings
Range: 3 to 6
Average: 4.61
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