The author of the bestseller White Mischief tells the story of the beautiful Langhorne sisters, who lived at the Pinnacle of high and powerful society from the end of the Civil War through the Second World War. Making their way across two continents, they left in their wakes rich husbands, fame, adoration, and scandal.Lizzie, Irene, Nancy, Phyllis, and Nora were born in Virginia to a family impoverished by the Civil War. Their father remade his fortune by collaborating with the Yankees and building rail-roads; the sisters became southern belles and northern debutantes. James Fox draws on unpublished correspondence between the sisters and their husbands, lovers, children, and the powerful and glamorous of their day to construct a plural topography with the scope of a grand novel and the pace of a historical thriller.At its center is the most famous sister, Nancy, who married Waldorf Astor, one of the richest men in the world. Heroic, hilarious, magnetically charming, and a bully, Lady Astor became Britain's first female MP, championing women's rights and the poor. The beautiful Irene married Charles Dana Gibson and was the model for the Gibson Girl. The author's grandmother, Phyllis, married a famous economist, one of the architects of modern Europe.Fox has written an absorbing and spirited, intimate and sweeping account of extraordinary women at the highest reaches of society, their adventures set against the background of a tumultuous century.

Autorentext

James Fox was born in Washington, D.C., in 1945. He worked as a journalist in Africa, and later at the Sunday Times in London. He is the author of the bestselling White Mischief.

Inhalt

The Cast of CharactersThe Langhorne Family Tree*1 The Langhornes2 Mr. Langhorne's Rock3 Mrs. Langhorne's Violet Lunch4 Mr. Shaw and Mr. Brooks5 Going Back in the Boats6 Nancy and the Astors7 Nancy the Good8 Conquering Society9 The Marriage of Nora10 The Returning Pilgrim11 Phyllis and the Captain12 Bright Young Men13 Fly Sickness14 Outbreak of War15 Trenches16 Dear Mr. Brand17 The Men in the Room18 Writing from School19 The Right Honourable Nancy Astor, MP20 Nancy the Ringmaster21 The Boy Problem22 Nora's Garden of Roses23 Winkie and the Jazz Age24 Nancy to Moscow, Bobbie to Jail25 Papa Wants a Little Gun26 Scott Fitzgerald's Intimate Strangers27 A Shovel in the Post28 Alone in the Universe29 Cockburn's "Cliveden Set"30 Fort Augustus*AcknowledgmentsBibliographyIndex