Black Diamonds: The Rise and Fall of an English Dynasty

By Catherine Bailey

Book Overview

From the New York Times -bestselling author of The Secret Rooms , the extraordinary true story of the downfall of one of England's wealthiest families Fans of Downton Abbey now have a go-to resource for fascinating, real-life stories of the spectacular lives led by England's aristocrats. With the novelistic flair and knack for historical detail Catherine Bailey displayed in her New York Times bestseller The Secret Rooms , Black Diamonds provides a page-turning chronicle of the Fitzwilliam coal-mining dynasty and their breathtaking Wentworth estate, the largest private home in England. When the sixth Earl Fitzwilliam died in 1902, he left behind the second largest estate in twentieth-century England, valued at more than ?3 billion of today's money--a lifeline to the tens of thousands of people who worked either in the family's coal mines or on their expansive estate. The earl also left behind four sons, and the family line seemed assured. But was it? As Bailey retraces the Fitzwilliam family history, she uncovers a legacy riddled with bitter feuds, scandals (including Peter Fitzwilliam's ill-fated affair with American heiress Kick Kennedy), and civil unrest as the conflict between the coal industry and its miners came to a head. Once again, Bailey has written an irresistible and brilliant narrative history.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0143126849
• ISBN13: 9780143126843
• Release Date: December 2014
• Publisher: Penguin Books
• Length: 576 Pages
• Weight: 1.12 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 5.4" x 8.3"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

A story of wealth, coal & good & bad luck - fascinating history

In the 1970s for days on end piles of family papers were burned in bonfires at Wentworth house in Yorkshire taking with it most of the late 19th and early 20th century history of the earls Fitzwillam. This is the reconstructed story of the aristocratic Wentworth family from their glory days, flush with coal wealth at the end of the 19th century to their decline and fall in the 20th century. Wentworth house was one of the great treasure houses of the UK with the longest façade of any house in the country. It was stuffed to the rafters with all the treasures extraordinary wealth for 250 years could buy. However that wealth was bought on the backs of the miners who worked in the coal mines on their land. It comes as somewhat of a relief when you read this book to find the Earls weren't the demons to their employees that the corporations of the period were. In those days you considered yourself extremely fortunate to work in their mines. Yet despite this the revenge of the coal mining industry, when it came in the 20th century was devastating to Wentworth and when it's all said and done, it's a loss for us all if the description of the old house interiors and park are anything to go by - it could easily have been another Chatsworth House with better luck. This is a fascinating book in which family decisions made for love, money or greed are played out over generations. You get a good look at the old British coal mining industry, service in the great houses and high society and a good look at Kathleen "Kick" Kennedy (of THE American Kennedy's) who died with 8th Earl in a plane crash in 1948 and the occupation of the house in world war 2 which effectively bought an end to the house on a residential basis for the family. For a social history this book is hard to beat combining as it does a range of eccentric family members of the Wentworths and all the strange behaviour great wealth can bring.