Revealing portrait of an interesting and misunderstood woman.

From a previous review, I started this book fully expecting to dislike the main protagonist - how wrong I was!

Hugo Vickers takes us on a fascinating journey into the lives of those in the upper echelons of society from the late Victorian era to the mid twentieth century. The focus of our attention is Gladys Deacon, born to wealthy US parents leading a life of luxurious leisure in Europe. The marriage of the parents implodes in infidelity and murder... and that's just the beginning of Gladys' story.

The portrait, lovingly painted by the author, is that of a prodigiously intelligent woman and a born survivor, who struggles to fit in and conform to society's expectations of her. Today she would perhaps be diagnosed with high functioning Autistic Spectrum Condition - unheard of at the time, it presents differently in girls.

I thoroughly enjoyed the story of this remarkable woman, made even better by the fact it is narrated by Hugo Vicars. It gives it a very authentic feeling.

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3 people found this helpful

Interesting

Could have done with more being made of the fortune teller to bind it all together. Generally a very interesting biography of an eccentric “British” duchess and made me think of what could have been and how getting what you want doesn’t always make you happy. She was a character that made me think of others who have since left this world and made it all the more boring for doing so.

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2 people found this helpful

Amazingly well written and narrated.

This is the best audiobook I've ever heard, and I try to listen to at least three a month! Fascinating, surprising and grippingly researched. Highly recommend.

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2 people found this helpful

enjoyable

Very enjoyable and interesting piece of history. audio version pleasant to listen to as read by the author.

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2 people found this helpful

Fascinating story very well read

I found this story fascinating and the performance by the author who read it was excellent .

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1900s aristocracy

Such a delight to emerge yourself into this story … pure escapism and a history lesson all the way through.

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Highly recommend

My thanks to Hugo Vickers for sharing with us his personal account of this unique and truly remarkable life. What a treat! I have the urge to re-read instantly.

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All that glitters is not gold

American Gladys (pronounced the American way Glay-diss) Deacon was the bright star of the social scene of the Belle Epoque & beyond. Her childhood was chaotic and troubled, her father having shot and killed her mother's long-term lover (his wealth and social standing enabling him to escape prison), and being batted across continents along with her sisters in acrimonious custody battles.

Gladys was prodigiously clever & intellectual and a linguist and was able to dazzle more brightly than any man in conversation. Her apparently astounding luminous beauty coupled with charm cast devastating spells over helpless men who worshipped her & wrote copious letters conveying the depths of their lovesick insanity.She gave herself to none of them, thereby fanning the flames of their absurd passions.

It was a life of unimaginable wealth & hedonism played out in luxury hotels in Paris or Nice in which Gladys indulged her love of art and books (by the end of her life her collection of paintings and sculptures was in today's money priceless). Her beauty was as striking as her quarrels & her spite. She never thought of anyone but herself and severed all ties with her mother, her sisters and many offending 'friends' along the way. She ruined her looks in vain pursuit of further perfection by having wax injected into the bridge of her nose which melted and slid around her face. She committed not a single act of kindness or usefulness as she moved through a society of remarkable emptiness. Gladys's mother rattled around a 200-room Italian villa whilst the pass-time of another wealthy lady epitomised the aching vacuum at the heart of this society: she had trained one of her pet frogs to jump into her mouth on command.

At the age of 14 Gladys had set her heart on becoming a Duchess by marrying the married Duke of Marlborough, a feat she finally achieved at the age of 40 in 1921. It was of course a disaster for them both. She hated Blenheim with its gardens full of snakes; she had 4 miscarriages (possibly intentional), and had nothing to say to the sporty hunting Duke who was so very far below her intellectually. It took him 13 years to evict her.

Her final years as a wildly eccentric & aggressive, toothless old woman in wellies surrounded by hordes of dogs is grotesque. Finally incarcerated in a psychiatric hospital (where author Hugo Vickers visited her for 2 years as a young man), she lived to be 96, outrageously difficult & cantankerous, always fervently wanting to live but with nothing to live for.

The book is all very rivetting and scrupulously researched (if a tad too detailed at times) and it is nicely read by Hugo Vickers himself. I think during all the year of his research (his 1st book on Gladys was published in 1979), he has fallen under her spell. Yes she was a glittering being, but ultimately with all that wealth, brains and beauty her 96 years brought no real happiness to anyone, least of all herself. Her whole story is not a glittering biography but a classical tragedy.
A good story, nevertheless!

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An indepth account

Hugo Vickers writes well and gives us a comprehensive and detailed account of the Duchesses' life. The strange pronunciation of her name 'Glay-dis' as opposed to the usual 'Glad-is' is irksome. In her youth she may have been a beauty but this book recounts a wasted, selfish life peppered with episodes of mental ill health. The main characters all appear to exhibit abnormal behaviour of one form or another. A sad slow decline which required her removal to psychiatric hospital concludes her long life. Hugo does a brilliant job of the narration.

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All a bit nuts

Enjoyed the dip into a decidedly dysfunctional family. Plays against the back drop of Europe and the elite. Whom was seeing whom, whom was in and whom was out…the main character herself was a bit of a wet fish but she was made that way. Anyhow well narrated and worth a credit.

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