Bronwen Astor (ePub)

"This discerning study is no mere padding for a description of the most sensational political scandal of modern times. Every facet of the life of Lady Astor is examined with exemplary skill and sensitive shrewdness."
Gerard Noel, 'Catholic Herald'

"The life story of Bronwen, Viscountess Astor, shows that the hurt of Profumo goes very deep, all the more so because the affair exposed personal vulnerabilities that money, class and social status were supposed to conceal."
ROBERT MCRUM,' Observer'

When Bronwen Pugh married into the celebrated Astor clan in 1960, she seemed to have the world at her feet. As firstly a successful BBC television presenter, and then the most celebrated model of her generation, she became mistress of Cliveden, the Italianate mansion on the Thames which her mother-in-law, Nancy Astor, had made famous with her political salons. Yet within three years of her marriage Bronwen Astor's world was turned upside down by the Profumo scandal. Cliveden was alleged to be at the centre of an international web of sexual debauchery and espionage which ultimately brought down Prime Minister Harold Macmillan.

Bill Astor became a social and political pariah, dying in 1966 of a broken heart. In charting the private agony behind the public disgrace, peter Stanford has been granted unprecedented access to both Lady Astor and her papers. He shows how a profound Christian faith has richly sustained her during her hitherto long-held silence.

"Well written, conscientious and thorough."
SELINA HASTINGS, 'Times Literary Supplement'

"Illuminates an extraordinary woman and an extraordinary life."
JOHN GRAHAM, 'Tatler'