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Coming Up Trumps: A Memoir
- Narrated by: Sarah Badel
- Length: 5 hrs and 53 mins
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Coming Up Trumps: A Memoir
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Summary
A riveting memoir from Lady Trumpington, doyenne of the House of Lords, taking her from 1920s London to the beginning of her political career in the early 1960s. In this witty, candid and utterly fascinating memoir, Baroness Trumpington looks back on her long and remarkable life.
The daughter of an officer in the Bengal Lancers and an American heiress, she was born in 1922 into a world of privilege and luxury. But her mother lost most of her inheritance in the Wall Street Crash and the family retrenched from Mayfair to Sandwich, in Kent, where her mother became a succesful society interior decorator.
Leaving school at 15, without ever taking an exam, the young Jean Campbell-Harris was sent to Paris to study art and both French and German, but two years later, with the outbreak of the Second World War, she became a land girl - on a farm owned by Lloyd George, a family friend. She loathed the outdoor life and soon changed direction, putting her German to good use by joining naval intelligence at Bletchley Park, where she stayed for the rest of the war.
After the war was over, she went to New York and worked on Madison Avenue as an advertising copywriter. It was in New York that she met her husband, William Barker, a history teacher. They returned to England and married in 1954, where Barker became first a master and then headmaster at the Leys School in Cambridge.
In this witty and winning memoir, Jean Trumpington recalls her early life, growing up in London and Kent in the 1920s and 30s, her wartime experiences, her life in the world of Madison Avenue's 'mad men' and - perhaps the happiest period of her life - her years as a headmaster's wife. The book ends with her embarking on what was to become a distinguished political career. It is vivid, forthright, and funny, and will appeal to readers who enjoyed the Duchess of Devonshire's Wait for Me as well as to the many people who warmed to Lady Trumpington after her triumphant appearance on Have I Got News for You.
Critic reviews
"What a joy this book is. Trumpers is irrepressibly naughty, permanently mischievous and hasn’t finished yet…But this memoir isn’t just a fascinating, frequently hilarious insight into the life of a force of nature. It is also, despite itself, an examination of a particular generation of women, trained for not much except marriage and cocktail parties, and of how, given the right spirit, some of these women derailed in the best possible way and went on to have wonderful adventures." ( Sunday Times, Culture, India Knight)
"This is the stuff of Evelyn Waugh and F Scott Fitzgerald except that Lady Trumpington lived it for real and to the full….However for all the giddy lurching from poverty to wealth, swanky parties to lonely digs there emerges a poignantly touching tale of a fiercely intelligent woman searching for her place in the world. That she finally finds it is a source of delight…A book never had a better title." ( Daily Express, Caroline Jowett)
"..exuberant, engaging and very funny book" (John Preston, Daily Mail)
"Coming Up Trumps is an absolute riot, a brisk trot through the life of a feisty, fun-loving aristocrat who knew anyone who was anyone in the last century…a colourful life and her equally colourful, life affirming, gloriously funny autobiography." ( The Sunday Express Charlotte Heathcote)
"…and now, in her 92nd year, publishing her memoirs, which are as welcome as they are overdue…there is something exhilaratingly sane about a stream of off-the-cuff anecdotes and reminiscences at the end of a long life. Shut your eyes – this is one of the acid tests of a good memoir – and you can almost hear the baroness in full flow, holding forth over a whisky in a bar the House of Lords…Trumpington is a splendidly self-depracating raconteur, with some funny stories to share." ( Sunday Telegraph David Robson)
"Characteristically trenchant and witty, the indomitable Baroness Trumpington’s view of her long well-lived life is a joy to read." ( Choice Magazine)
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What listeners say about Coming Up Trumps: A Memoir
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Stephanie
- 20-02-20
Such fun!
I enjoyed this so much, such spirit and fun, she makes me want to find her zest for life and living myself, I hope she’s still sticking two fingers up at the world, wherever she is
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 02-06-15
for the older listener i think
struggled to finish this but i think it would be great for the older listener. I have recommended this to Aunts etc.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Maggie
- 04-07-14
Living history, alive, kicking and V-signing
Any additional comments?
This is a great book that brings Baroness Trumpington to life on each page. There's little point in my recapping the story with the masterly précis from the previous reviewer already here. It would have been perfect if it had been narrated by the lady herself, but that would be an unrealistic hope. Instead we have Sarah Badel, a good actor in her own right and daughter of the late Alan Badel of the patrician voice and faultless diction. If we can't have Jean Trumpington's characteristic voice Sarah is a very good substitute. Definitely recommended as something a little different.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Patricia White
- 12-05-15
Persevere and you'll be rewarded...
At first I thought I'd struggle to tolerate this narration - it was like being stuck next to a stranger, maybe on a long flight, who goes on...and on...and on about themselves...dropping name after name. Then I realised how fascinating Baroness Trumpington's life has been, and the narrator's delivery suits the spirit of the age in which she grew up. But I wonder whether this time the written page would be better.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Bootie Boot
- 05-01-15
Such fun!
Wonderfully effervescent if deliberately superficial at times. There is a great feeling that there could have been a lot more in terms of scurrilous gossip, but Lady T is carefully discreet about others whilst being starchily honest about herself. She's led an amazing life and her zest and enthusiasm is wonderful. Really recommended. Superb narration is the icing on the cake and injects fantastic colour and feeling to the Baroness's words.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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- Mrs. C. Hunt
- 15-12-18
Coming up Trumps
I loved theses memoirs of a woman who has had an incredible journey through life, and had the courage to take the unconventional turns in life. Very enjoyable written with good humour and narrated brilliantly by Saral Basel.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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- IAN COULSON
- 07-07-14
Inspriational
If you could sum up Coming Up Trumps: A Memoir in three words, what would they be?
truly inspirational woman
What other book might you compare Coming Up Trumps: A Memoir to, and why?
does not compare to anything i have read yet absolutely brilliant
What does Sarah Badel bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you had only read the book?
she tells the story in a most inspiring way
Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?
yes but didn't have time to took me a couple of days
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Hedgehog
- 15-11-19
So interesting
Fascinating insight to a remarkable life. Not many like this Baroness around these days! Clear reading. Very glad I purchased this book.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- bennyhouse
- 16-10-15
Fabulous!
What made the experience of listening to Coming Up Trumps: A Memoir the most enjoyable?
Simple and punchy writing and very well read.
What other book might you compare Coming Up Trumps: A Memoir to, and why?
The David Niven books and the Dirk Bogarde books - entirely different life styles but a similarly dry and self deprecating sense of humour shared by all three characters.
What does Sarah Badel bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you had only read the book?
She IS Baroness Trumpington in the way that she reads it.
Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?
No, it was rather one to be savoured and even reread.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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- wendy Howe
- 27-03-22
Fascinating life story.
Enjoyed her sense of humour enormously which the reader brought the autobiography to life.
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