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Nancy: The Story of Lady Astor
Nancy: The Story of Lady Astor
Oct 6, 2024 12:19 AM

Author:Adrian Fort

Nancy: The Story of Lady Astor

In 1919, Nancy Astor became the first woman to take a seat in parliament.

She was not what had been expected. Far from a virago who had suffered for the cause of female suffrage, she was already near the centre of the ruling society that had for so long resisted the political upheavals of the early twentieth century, having married into the family of one of the richest men in the world. She was not even British. She would prove to be a trailblazer and beacon for the generations of women who would follow her into Parliament.

This new biography charts Nancy Astor's incredible story, from penury in the American South, to a lifestyle of the most immense riches, from the luxury of Edwardian England, through the 'Jazz Age', and on towards the Second World War: a world of great country estates, lavish town houses and the most sumptuous entertainments, peopled by the most famous and powerful names of the age. But hers was not only the life of power, glamour and easy charm: it was also defined by principles and bravery, by war and sacrifice, by love and bitter disputes.

With glorious, page-turning brio, Adrian Fort has brought to life this restless, controversial American dynamo, an unforgettable woman who left a deep and lasting imprint on the political life of our nation.

Reviews

Fort casts fresh light on a remarkable woman, whose toughness and independence of opinion allowed this outsider to chart a new course for women.

—— Good Book Guide

The spirited story of the indomitable girl from America who married a millionaire and fought fiercely to become Britain’s first female MP

—— Sunday Times

Fort’s well researched biography is excellent

—— Janet Christie , Scotsman

Adrian Fort does justice to her energetic, forceful and outspoken personality

—— Christopher Silvester , Daily Express

A masterful and compassionate book, every bit as multi-facet as the extraordinary woman

—— Country Life

This elegant work brilliantly evokes the story of a woman ahead of her time, and does justice to her energetic and outspoken personality

—— Daily Telegraph

Fort returns us to the spirited if sometimes misguided Virginian-born woman who married one of the richest men in the world and became the UK’s first woman MP

—— Lesley McDowell , Glasgow Sunday Herald

Adrian Fort’s book does a good job of showing the charms and contradictions of the wealthy American

—— Fachtna Kelly , Sunday Business Post

Immaculately researched and a page-turner

—— Harry Hodges , Daily Express

With the acuity of Joan Didion and the controlled hilarity of Ian Frazier, Mark Binelli investigates the portents and absurdities of America’s most infamous urban calamity. Exhilarating in scope, irresistible for its intricate, scrupulous portraiture, [The Last Days of Detroit] is the masterful performance of one of our generation’s most humane and brilliant writers

—— Wells Tower, author of Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned

Let’s face it. Detroit City is not the place to be. But if you care about America you have to see it, to walk its desolate streets, to talk to the people who make it their home, to hear what it means to live on the wrong side of the post-industrial divide. And you’re not going to find a smarter, tougher, more entertaining guide than Mark Binelli

—— Kevin Boyle, author of Arc of Justice

Mark Binelli has succeeded in synthesizing the tragedy and absurdity that Detroiters face each and every day in America’s fastest shrinking city. Yes, things are dire in Motor City, but Binelli refuses to perform an autopsy on a place that still radiates rage, pride, hustle, and hope. Detroit, he discovers, is very much alive

—— Heidi Ewing, director of Detropia

Before turning the buffalo (or the artists) loose on the haunted prairie that was once Detroit, we should ponder why a great American metropolis was allowed to die. Mark Binelli, Motor City native returned, provides a picaresque but unflinchingly honest look at the crime scene. Like Richard Pryor, he has the rare talent to make you laugh and cry at the same time

—— Mike Davis, author of Ecology of Fear

[The Last Days of Detroit] is a brilliant kaleidoscope of everything that is great, broken, inspiring, heart-breaking, and ultimately remarkable about Detroit. Mark Binelli has turned the story of the city, and by extension America, into a glorious, unforgettable work of art

—— Dinaw Mengestu, author of How to Read the Air

At once hilarious and sharp, sweeping and intimate, [The Last Days of Detroit] is an oddly delighted warning from the recent future. With the tender scrutiny of a returning exile, Mark Binelli has written a non-fiction novel about our American experiment, and it’s the most entertaining and persuasive book about this country I’ve read in a very long time

—— Gideon Lewis-Kraus, author of A Sense of Direction

Mark Binelli is a first-rate reporter, gifted with the ability to get almost anybody to open up. [The Last Days of Detroit] is searching, wide-angle, honest, deeply moving, and unshakably dark. It is a vivid slice of our time and implies a disquieting prophecy of the future

—— Luc Sante, author of Low Life: Lures and Snares of Old New York

An encounter with a longstanding black resident reveals underlying tensions “Detroit isn't some kind of abstract art project." Binelli's achievement is to make that vividly apparent

—— Andy Beckett , Guardian

Mark Binelli’s The Last Days of Detroit is a magnificent anthem to one of America’s most significant cities. He takes you on a tour into the dark heart of this once vibrant city, the home of the Ford car. This is a beautiful prose poem to a fascinating city and to post-industrial America

—— Patrick Neale , The Bookseller

Succeeds in bringing out angles on Detroit that at least this casual observer hadn’t heard before

—— Rose Jacobs , FT

Both a history and a thoughtful travelogue… British readers might wonder what Detroit has to do with them, but the collapse of manufacturing, its yawning unemployed, the tension generated by a usually white liberal class who seize on gentrification possibilities (and the desire to turn dereliction into abstract art) are universal modern concerns

—— Claire Allfree , Metro

Mark Binelli’s surprisingly joyful book

—— Ed Caesar , Sunday Times

A remarkable trawl through the sorry and tragic recent history of a city that was once heralded as the future of the United States

—— Doug Johnstone , Big Issue

Binellis shows us that a brighter economic future may be possible even in the most benighted of cities

—— Rohan Silva , Prospect

The value of this book lies not just in its compelling story, but in its lessons for all the West

—— Robert Chesshyre , Literary Review

Now the city and above all its people have been brilliantly captured

—— David Goldblatt , Independent

[A] wry, inquisitive survey of Detroit's troubled past and present... Surprisingly joyful

—— Sunday Times

This journalistic account tells an enthralling, balanced story

—— Daily Telegraph
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