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Gossip about ultra rich people is always fun, even if those people's exploits took place 100 years ago. On that strength alone it is definitely a good read.
However, I have two problems with the book. First is the emphasis placed upon the gorgeousness, the irresistible beauty of Idina. The book is filled with photos and I am dumbfounded by these claims; Idina looks exactly like former Prime Minister Theresa May. Not. Sexy.
The second problem, and much more serious from the readers' perspective, is the motivation behind Idina's "bolt" from her first marriage. Here's what we are told about social norms for the ultra wealthy at that time: sex outside of a marriage is totally fine, for both men and women, as long as one was discreet and the husbands only had sex with married women. Married men having sex with unmarried women was a huge no-no because it threatened titles and inheritances, as well as could cause unwanted pregnancies (married women could just slip bastard children into their existing brood). The author makes clear beyond a doubt that both Idina and her first husband subscribed whole-heartedly to this sexual system. So, okay. Idina and her first husband are full-tilt gangbusters in love, he goes off to war, they both have loads of sex with other people. She gets seriously ill, he's home on leave for 4 months and spends it not at her bedside but having sex with a married woman and also making goo-goo eyes at some sexy young unmarried thing. And this is what tanks the marriage! He abides by the rules of the sexual system and yet she still feels betrayed and chucks everything - including her kids - to go off with a guy she barely knows. It is scarcely believable. One can either not accept the author's characterization of the events, or one can accept it and view Idina as the very worst type of hypocrite; I go with the latter.
Definitely a good book, but that pivotal decision of Idina's is beyond bizarre.
However, I have two problems with the book. First is the emphasis placed upon the gorgeousness, the irresistible beauty of Idina. The book is filled with photos and I am dumbfounded by these claims; Idina looks exactly like former Prime Minister Theresa May. Not. Sexy.
The second problem, and much more serious from the readers' perspective, is the motivation behind Idina's "bolt" from her first marriage. Here's what we are told about social norms for the ultra wealthy at that time: sex outside of a marriage is totally fine, for both men and women, as long as one was discreet and the husbands only had sex with married women. Married men having sex with unmarried women was a huge no-no because it threatened titles and inheritances, as well as could cause unwanted pregnancies (married women could just slip bastard children into their existing brood). The author makes clear beyond a doubt that both Idina and her first husband subscribed whole-heartedly to this sexual system. So, okay. Idina and her first husband are full-tilt gangbusters in love, he goes off to war, they both have loads of sex with other people. She gets seriously ill, he's home on leave for 4 months and spends it not at her bedside but having sex with a married woman and also making goo-goo eyes at some sexy young unmarried thing. And this is what tanks the marriage! He abides by the rules of the sexual system and yet she still feels betrayed and chucks everything - including her kids - to go off with a guy she barely knows. It is scarcely believable. One can either not accept the author's characterization of the events, or one can accept it and view Idina as the very worst type of hypocrite; I go with the latter.
Definitely a good book, but that pivotal decision of Idina's is beyond bizarre.
adventurous
emotional
informative
medium-paced
Excellent writing. The narrative courses effortlessly and there are no slow or dull points.
In love with Downton Abbey, read about the outrageous Idina Sackville, one of England infamous women of the 1920-1940s. Idina rocked the formal world of the uppercrust with a loose sexual attitude and five marriages to her name.
This was a fascinating view of a woman in the 1920s onwards who left a man before he left her, and had to deal with the consquences for the rest of her life, and the consequences it had for her children.
I love a good true-life tale of women who refuse to conform to the bahvior that society expects of them. Edwardian society was kooky anyway. So Idina could have as many affairs as she liked so long as they conformed to certain criteria, but remove one or all of those criteria and she was out? Not cool. At first I couldn't imagine how she could leave her children, but if you consider that a) in her society she really had no other options except leave them or stay in a marriage that didn't satisfy her and b) child raising among her circle was not exactly a "hands-on" activity, I came to understand why she might have done what she did.
Very interesting reading.
Very interesting reading.
Not what I was expecting and definately didn't match any of the comments on the back. It's am era where affairs are the norm in high society, but only married women can be labelled adulterers, where divorce happened for a select few but the outcomes were varried.
Highly dissapointed.
Highly dissapointed.
This is the second time I have read this book, getting on for ten years between reads. I absolutely loved it first time round, I found it very glamorous and exciting. Whilst I did enjoy the re-read, I now have a lot more life experience and viewed what I read with completely different eyes. It gave me much to think about, rather than just being swept away. The Author had hero worship for her ancestor Idina. Perhaps I did too when I first came across this book. It’s a very seductive world. I bet it would have been very interesting to have a drink and chat with Idina. I think she (the family?) blames Ewan completely for all that went wrong with the marriage and subsequent events. Now that I am older, it just pisses me off that the incestuous, bed hoping aristocracy get to live by their own rules and to hell with anyone else. The causal way they palm their kids off, to be raised by others is probably why they are so rampant in extramarital affairs. It must interfere with their ability to bond with a loved one and have them looking for love in all the wrong places? And it surprised me they haven’t died out with STIs hahaha. Then right at the very end, the afterword gives a new perspective on the woman who lived life her own way.
The story is well-written with a comfortable flow. However, I cannot say that I "liked it" because it is a biography of a hedonistic, self-centered woman at the turn of the 20th century. The author is Lady Idina Sackville's great grandaughter who seems to be quite smitten with the subject as being a wealthy adventuress for whom there are no rules. While the problems of fidelity, promiscuity, drugs, and alcohol abuse are included, they are viewed through rose-colored glasses.
This deeply researched book brings life to Edwardian England, the carefree '20s, and two great wars as experienced by Lady Idina whose scandalous life ultimately ends in loneliness and sorrow. Despite the stories about lovers, wealth, family, glamour and extensive travels, this is indeed a sad, sad life story. I look forward to reading this author's work in a book where she does not have a personal connection with the subject.
This deeply researched book brings life to Edwardian England, the carefree '20s, and two great wars as experienced by Lady Idina whose scandalous life ultimately ends in loneliness and sorrow. Despite the stories about lovers, wealth, family, glamour and extensive travels, this is indeed a sad, sad life story. I look forward to reading this author's work in a book where she does not have a personal connection with the subject.
Oh dear. I really wanted to like this and I do think that it could have been very good. But the detail. Oh it was excruciating! Yes, research is great when you are writing a biography but I felt that the author needed to be selective as to what she included.
I felt absolutely NO connection to Idina (in fact she only became real in the Afterword) and I really didn't care what happened to her.
I probably wouldn't have finished this if it hadn't been for a book group.
I felt absolutely NO connection to Idina (in fact she only became real in the Afterword) and I really didn't care what happened to her.
I probably wouldn't have finished this if it hadn't been for a book group.