The Grit in the Pearl, Lyndsy Spence
The Grit in the Pearl, Lyndsy Spence
List: $19.99 | Sale: $13.99
Club: $9.99

The Grit in the Pearl
The Scandalous Life of Margaret, Duchess of Argyll

Author: Lyndsy Spence

Narrator: Lucy Rayner

Unabridged: 9 hr 26 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 12/03/2019


Synopsis

Margaret, Duchess of Argyll (1912–1993) was an international celebrity in her youth, adored and observed by millions. But in 1963, the year of the Profumo Affair, the 11th Duke of Argyll shocked the country when he alleged that his adulterous wife had slept with over eighty men behind his back. He produced, as his evidence, a set of sexually explicit Polaroid photographs and explosive love letters. The duke won a divorce, but this had a dramatic effect on Margaret's life. On the verge of financial destitution, she fell from grace and was abandoned by most of her friends prior to her death in a nursing home in Pimlico in 1993.

Lyndsy Spence tells a tragic story of the life and downfall of this fascinatingly complex woman, and shows how she fell victim to a cruel husband, harsh social mores, and an unforgiving class. It uses new sources, including taped conversations, an unexpurgated transcript of her divorce trial, interviews, and letters. The Grit in the Pearl is a meticulously researched and powerful biography, which acts as a potent lens on various themes in the last century: fame, privacy, the media, sex, power, and relationships between classes.

About Lyndsy Spence

Lyndsy Spence is the author of The Mitford Girls' Guide to Life, Mrs Guinness: The Rise and Fall of Diana Mitford, the Thirties Socialite, and The Mistress of Mayfair. She is the founder of The Mitford Society, a popular online community dedicated to the Mitford sisters.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Pauline

This biography warns women not to rely on their beauty to bring success and meaning into their lives. In this case we meet the super-rich who marry into the super-poor British aristocracy and what an immoral self-centred lot they are with Margaret, Duchess of Argyll, the star turn. Her infamous nude......more

Goodreads review by Dawna

She had it all...except you can’t buy character. We see this pattern in the USA today as entitled, wealthy display arrogance, destroy the middle classes, the environment and democracy while asserting their reasons for not paying their taxes. Corruption, greed, hedonism—you just can’t buy character.......more