The Secrets of Eaton Square
Sex, Scandal, and Infamy on the Road to Buckingham Palace
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- $15.99
Publisher Description
Windsor biographer Alexander Larman takes you behind the doors of Eaton Square, London’s most sought-after address.
In the classic PBS series Upstairs, Downstairs, the aristocratic Bellamy family lived at the fictitious 165 Eaton Place, a grand home in one of London’s most beautiful garden squares just minutes from Buckingham Palace. But, what really goes on behind the beautiful, polished doors of one of London’s most sought-after addresses?
In The Secrets of Eaton Square: Sex, Scandal and Infamy on the Road to Buckingham Palace, Alexander Larman opens those doors wide to the scandalous social and political history of Eaton Square that begins in the eighteenth century and runs right up until today. With a cast of characters that includes everyone from Neville Chamberlain, Joachim von Ribbentrop (the lover of Wallis Simpson), Diana Mitford, Vivien Leigh, Margaret Thatcher, and even James Bond, Larman’s book brings Eaton Square alive.
The list of luminaries and the powerful who lived on the square goes on and on today, from Andrew Lloyd Webber and Charles Saatchi to today’s parade of Russian oligarchs whose money has given the area a new moniker: “Red Square.” No matter what it is called, Eaton Square remains an iconic byword for moneyed luxury and glamorous discretion that, at times, is the playground of off-duty royals. Let Alexander Larman unlock the doors of Eaton Square for you. He has all the keys…
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
London's Eaton Square has been the home of prime ministers, Hollywood celebrities, Nazi sympathizers, and one enduring murder mystery, as revealed in this delightfully gossipy if occasionally plodding account from historian Larman (Power and Glory). Previously a patch of marshland famous for a disastrous 1784 balloon flight attempt, the square, with its relatively "modest" but tony homes built beginning in 1827 under the auspices of "master builder" Thomas Cubitt, evolved into London's "most fashionable address." The author surveys two centuries' worth of residents with an eye for scandal, from 19th-century art collector and Whig politician Ralph Bernal, whose legacy is marred by his advocacy for slavery; to mid-20th-century conservative politician Robert Boothby, known for his "taste for rough-trade sex and teenage boys"; to Neville Chamberlain, who rented out his home to buffoonish Nazi ambassador Joachim von Ribbontrop. The most morbidly riveting resident is Diana Mitford, whose relationship with "charismatic" fascist Oswald Mosley led her to not only praise Hitler after meeting him (she noted his "marvellous drollery") but have him at her wedding. In comparison, the less shocking tales can drag—such as an exhaustive exploration of the careers of actors Rex Harrison and Vivian Leigh—and the square's intriguing contemporary iteration as a home for Russian oligarchs only gets a brief mention. Still, it's an amusingly lurid compendium of elites mostly behaving badly.
