THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARGOT ASQUITH

by Mark Bonham- Ed. Carter ‧ RELEASE DATE: N/A

What we have here is an abridged edition of Margot Asquith's two-volume autobiography, originally published in the early twenties; then it caused consternation among the Establishment: such a revelation from the wife of a Prime Minister; now it can only induce nostalgia. Covering many years, and written a diary-style variations indicative of the changes during those years, the book is girlish, gamy and grand, a marvellously self-centered view of the Great World, like those of Lady Astor or Lady puff Cooper, better than the former, somewhat beneath the latter. The scenes of the Victorian and Edwardian eras, of her childhood and coming-out, of her smart set called ""the Souls"", of her after dinner games and ballroom romances, of her marriage to Lord Asquith, a widower with five children, of the Boer War and Downing Street, of the Armistice and the 1918 General Election, of jotted-down causeries with Tennyson and Henry James, so less, or Salisbury, Balfour, Chamberlain, General Booth and Peter Flower, all are remarkably free, full of finesse, an invincible charm, a curious wit. As self-portraits go, this one is glittering, lighting up a kaleidoscope of historical tidbits, over which Mr. Powell or Miss Mitford could work wonders; Lady Asquith almost does.

Pub Date: N/A

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1962

Categories: NONFICTION