QUEENS OF SOCIETY

Partying with the royals.

Evans, a cultural historian, draws largely on memoirs and biographies for her vivid group biography of six wealthy women at the center of British high society from Edwardian England to the end of World War II: the American-born Nancy Astor, Emerald Cunard, and Laura Mae Corrigan, and their British counterparts Sibyl Colefax, Margaret Greville, and Edith Londonderry. Financially advantageous marriages, and the “increasingly permeable” upper classes, gave even those from humble origins ample opportunities to hobnob with aristocrats. In their sprawling country mansions and London residences, they threw great parties: by “creating convivial and welcoming homes, and providing lavish and enjoyable hospitality, they consciously attracted the most stimulating and dynamic people of the day.” Nancy and Waldorf Astor, for example, gave several balls a year for 500 guests at a time, dinner parties for 60, and in 1936, a ball for 1,000. Not surprisingly, they often saw one another as rivals in attracting the same celebrated guests. Their social involvements veered into meddling: Lady Astor blamed Emerald Cunard for encouraging both the romance between Edward and Wallis Simpson and his pro-Nazi leanings. Evans asserts that the women “saw their social role as a vocation, a career or a calling,” but not all of them effected significant change. The Astors seem the exception: During the war, they supported soldiers by offering their homes as hospitals; Waldorf served as a Member of Parliament, and in 1919, when he was forced to move to the House of Lords because of his father’s elevation, Nancy was elected for the seat that he vacated—remaining in it until 1945. A few of the women, hoping to avoid war with Germany, were Nazi sympathizers. A few contributed to the arts or public welfare. All seemed to revel in their role as hostesses.

A glittery, gossipy, entertaining read.