Those Wild Wyndhams: Three Sisters at the Heart of Power by Renton, Claudia (2014) Hardcover

Three Sisters - Beautiful, Cultured And Aristocratic, Born Into Immense Wealth During The Reign Of Queen Victoria. Their Dramatic Lives Are Here Unfolded In A Rich Historical Biography Certain To Appeal To Fans Of Downton Abbey, 'georgiana' And Stella Tillyard's 'aristocrats'. Mary, Madeline And Pamela - The Three Wyndham Sisters - Were Painted By John Singer Sargent In 1899. For The Times It Was, Quite Simply, 'the Greatest Picture Of Modern Times'. But These Beautiful, Fin De Siecle Gentlewomen Came To Epitomize A Vanished World. The Languor Of Their Pose Reflects The Leisured, Gilded, Existence Of The Late Victorian Aristocracy That Was To Be Dealt A Deathblow By The First World War. Yet The Lives Of These Three Wyndham Sisters Were Far More Turbulent Than Their Air Of Calm Suggests. Brought Up In Artistic Circles, Their Childhood Was Liberal And Romantic. Their Parents Were Intimate Friends With The Pre-raphaelites And The Girls Grew To Become Leaders Of The Aesthetic Movement. Bowing To Convention, They Made Excellent Marriages But Found Emotional Support From Others - Mary With Arthur Balfour And The Poet Wilfrid Scawen Blunt; Pamela With Liberal Statesman And Ornithologist Edward Grey. Their Liaisons Shocked Society, While The First World War Devastated Their Way Of Life. 'those Wild Wyndhams' Is Their First Ever Biography, And Is Based On The Many Letters They Have Left Behind - Compelling, Humorous And Brilliantly Illuminating. This Sparkling Debut By Claudia Renton Captures Them And Their Age In An Unforgettable Piece Of Historical And Political Biography. 'worse Than 100 Boys' -- Wilbury -- 'the Little Hunter' -- Honeymoon -- The Gang -- Clouds -- The Birth Of The Souls -- The Summer Of 1887 -- Mananai -- Conflagration -- The Season Of 1889 -- The Mad And Their Keepers -- Crisis -- India -- Rumour -- Egypt -- The Florentine Drama -- Glen -- The Portrait, War And Death -- Plucking Triumph From Disaster -- The 1900 Election -- Growing Families -- The Souls In Power -- Pamela At Wilsford -- Mr. Balfour's Poodle -- 1910 -- Revolution? -- 1911-1914 -- Mcmxiv -- The Front -- The Remainder -- The Grey Dawn -- The End. Claudia Renton. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [455]-467) And Index.