AN UNLIKELY COUNTESS: Lily Budge and the 13th Earl of Galloway - Softcover

Carpenter

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0007108818 ISBN 13: 9780007108817

Publisher: Harper Perennial, 2005

Synopsis

292 pages. Book is in Very good condition throughout.

About this title

Review:

‘A spirited and sensitive account of one of the strangest lives imaginable. Louise Carpenter’s portrait of the life of Lily Budge is a classic of its kind: elegantly written, with a rare eye for detail and a shrewd and warm understanding of its extraordinary subject.’ William Boyd

‘Louise Carpenter tells this sensational story without ever exaggerating its more eye-catching excesses. She is sensitive to all sides...a serious and profoundly moving book.’ Independent on Sunday

‘An entertaining and moving memorial to [Lily’s] indomitable, colourful character. Wonderful.’ Telegraph

‘Louise Carpenter is a biographer of real promise...Her account of this oddly matched couple struggling to get along in Britain’s high society is often amusing, sometimes touching...Painstakingly researched and very readable.’ Scottish Herald

Synopsis:

A vivid and moving portrait of the inimitable Lily Budge, who overcame poverty and class to become the 13th Countess of Galloway, and one of Scotland's most colourful eccentrics. In 1916, Lily Miller was born into a working class family in Duns, in the Borders region of Scotland. She became determined to escape, both from the small town gossip and from her terrifying mother, who thought Lily was born only to serve. Lily could not have predicted that her flight would eventually lead her to the heart of the Scottish establishment. Her spirited, eccentric and at times self-destructive nature shaped every decision she made, and her life became increasingly rackety. In 1975, living in Edinburgh as a self-styled dealer in porcelain dolls, with two failed marriages and four sons (one adopted) to her name, not to mention posts as a housekeeper and a boarding house owner, she met Randolph Stewart, the future 13th Earl of Galloway. On the surface, Randolph's aristocratic childhood could not have seemed more different. His was a world of great privilege, emotional restraint and overwhelming expectation.

As an adolescent he had been diagnosed with schizophrenia and, as a young man, lobotomised. Much of the rest of his life had been spent hidden away, either in a mental institution or with a religious order of monks. But a curious bond formed between Lily and Randolph, and marriage followed, beginning a deep family feud that was played out in newspaper headlines. Was such a union doomed to failure? An Unlikely Countess is a masterpiece of storytelling and biography, teeming with historical detail and famous names. Louise Carpenter has brought to life not only two extraordinary characters in Lily and Randolph, but also the worlds in which they moved, with sensitivity, humour and expert observation. Her affection for her subjects is matched by a wry awareness of their idiosyncrasies, and the rich backdrop she paints serves as a vibrant portrait of twentieth-century Scotland.

About this edition

• Publisher: Harper Perennial
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 0007108818
• ISBN 13: 9780007108817
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 320