Claudia Renton

Mary, Madeline and Pamela - the three Wyndham sisters - were painted by John Singer Sergeant in 1899. For The Times it was, quite simply, 'the greatest picture of modern times'. These beautiful, rich fin de siecle women clad in white 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 impact of 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 and liberal circles, their childhood was freedom loving and filled with romance medieval fantasies. All three girls were intimate friends with the Pre-Raphaelites and grew to become leaders of the aesthetic movement. Bowing to convention, all three made excellent marriages but only one was happy. All three found emotional support from others - Mary with Arthur Balfour and the artist Wilfrid Blunt; Pamela with Edward GreyAll three sisters were central to 'the Souls' - an unconscious and accidental grouping of brilliant, sincere and loyal friends. Devoted to aesthetics and culture, the Souls also treated women with absolute equality to men and believed in liberated morals and a freedom of behaviour which shocked society.This book is the first ever biography of these extraordinary sisters. Their lives and times are brought to life by the many letters they have left behind. All three were consummate, compelling and humorous letter writers which illuminate their markedly different and enchanting personalities. The First World War brought devastation to their families and their way of life. This brilliant debut by Claudia Renton captures them and their age in an unforgettable piece of historical and political biography.

Three Sisters at the Heart of Power

Those Wicked Wyndhams

Dan Jones

Simon Sebag Montefiore

In 101 World Heroes, bestselling historian Simon Sebag Montefiore presents his personal selection of the 100 most heroic figures from the pages of world history. Emperors and queens, soldiers and statesmen, religious leaders and philosophers rub shoulders with composers and poets, scientists and explorers, artists and storytellers from three millennia. All are united not just by what they did in their own lifetimes, but also by the enduring legacy they have bequeathed to the sum of human experience and achievement. The central spine of the book consists of a series of narrative entries recording the lives and legacies of the 101 heroes and heroines. Each entry is accompanied by a brief essay opening a window on the times in which he or she lived. Thus the life of Egypt's greatest pharaoh, Ramses II, is accompanied by an essay looking at the gods and goddesses of Ancient Egypt, while the entry for Admiral Horatio Nelson explores the tactics and gunnery of a ship-of-the-line. The book is illustrated throughout with maps, diagrams, paintings and photographs, and an appendix celebrates a further 100 individual deeds of heroism with a special claim to immortality. The heroes include: Ramses the Great Leonardo da Vinci Albert Einstein King Solomon Elizabeth I of England Winston Churchill The Buddha Tokugawa Ieyasu M. K. Gandhi Aristotle William Shakespeare F.D. Roosevelt Alexander the Great Thomas Jefferson David Ben Gurion Hannibal Voltaire George Orwell Jesus Napoleon Bonaparte Elvis Presley Marcus Aurelius Horatio Nelson J. F. Kennedy Mohammed Duke of Wellington John Paul II Charlemagne Abraham Lincoln Nelson Mandela Leo Tolstoy Charles Darwin

One Hundred and One World Heroes

Winner of the Slightly Foxed Best First Biography Prize 2014 A rich historical biography of ‘those wild Wyndhams’ – three cultured aristocratic sisters born into great privilege in late Victorian Britain.

Claudia Renton

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