The Viceroy's Daughters The Lives of the Curzon Sisters

By Anne de Courcy

Book Overview

The Viceroy's Daughters is the riveting chronicle of the dazzling lives of three remarkable sisters -- aristocratic, rich, spirited and willful-born when the wealth and privilege of the British upper classes were at their zenith. Irene (born 1896), Cynthia (born 1898) and Alexandra (born 1904) were the three daughters of Lord Curzon, viceroy of India from 1898 to 1905 and probably the grandest and most self-confident imperial servant Britain ever possessed. After the death of his fabulously rich American wife in 1906, Curzon embarked on a long love affair with the novelist Elinor Glyn, before dropping her to marry his rich and beautiful second wife. It was his fierce determination to control every aspect of his daughters' lives -- including the money that was rightfully theirs -- that led them one by one to revolt against their father. The three Curzon sisters were at the very heart of the fast and glittering world of the twenties and thirties. Irene, intensely musical and a passionate fox hunter, had love affairs with the glamorous Melton Mowbray hunting set. Cynthia (Cimmie) married Sir Oswald Mosley, joining him first in the Labour Party, where she became a popular and successful Labour MP herself, then following him into fascism. Alexandra (Baba), the youngest and most beautiful, married the Prince of Wales's best friend -- and best man -- Fruity Metcalfe. On Cimmie's early death in 1933, Baba flung herself into a long and passionate affair with Mosley and a liaison with Mussolini's ambassador to London, Count Grandi, while simultaneously enjoying the romantic devotion of the foreign secretary, Lord Halifax. The sisters saw British fascism from behind the scenes and had an equally intimate view of the arrival of Wallis Simpson and the marriage and life of the Windsors. The war found them based at "the Dorch" (the Dorchester Hotel), their days spent nursing wounded soldiers, working in canteens, lecturing and doing other war work. Toward the end of their extraordinary lives, the two surviving sisters became pillars of the establishment, Irene made one of the first four life peers in 1958 for her work with youth clubs, while Baba was recognized for her tireless efforts for the Save the Children Fund with a CBE. Based on unpublished letters and diaries, The Viceroy's Daughters throws new light on Oswald Mosley, Nancy Astor and the Cliveden set, Lord Halifax, and the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. It is also a wonderfully revealing portrait of British upper-class life in the first half of the twentieth century.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0066210615
• ISBN13: 9780066210612
• Release Date: April 2002
• Publisher: William Morrow & Company
• Length: 432 Pages
• Weight: 1.89 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 6.1" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

The Viceroys Daughters

I have always wanted to read this book. I was so pleased to find it.

So true....

Unlike the Mitford girls, the Curzon sisters were essentially useless creatures, though one could base a really good revolution on their cosseted existence and horrid antics. Upper classes in every land produce people like them, but the English do it particularly well. I remember at lunch one day hearing a well-known older titled lady, refer to a deceased -and very grand- noblewoman, saying, "Yes, and _________ made the Curzon sisters look like nuns!" After reading "The Viceroy's Daughters" I now know that the 1920s and '30s were much more wild than I ever imagined... and I was a teenager in the 1960's! If you enjoy the perfectly dreadful, really meaningless, but drama-filled lives of some of society's sacred monsters, Anne de Courcy's superbly written and meticulously researched book is just the thing.

Better than Masterpiece Theater!

"The Viceroy's Daughters: The Lives of the Curzon Sisters" takes you into the homes-and the bedrooms-of some of Britain's most powerful figures in the period between the two World Wars. The Viceroy was Lord Curzon, a smart and ambitious aristocrat who married a beautiful American heiress. When she died, at the turn of the last century, she left him with a lot of money and three attractive, willful daughters. These three daughters-Irene, Cimmie and Baba-never did that much in their own rights (they were no Mitford sisters) but they did circulate in very interesting crowds. IN addition, their wealth gave them a tremendous sense of independence and ability to pursue their interests.Irene, the eldest, never married. Her life was filled with men, foxes, and drink (not necessarily in that order). Cimmie, the middle, married the British fascist Oswald Mosley. She was deeply devoted to him and his causes-campaigning in her furs for fascism, for socialism, for whatever cause captured him-despite his many infidelities. She, like her mother, died young while her husband was embroiled in an affair with the beautiful Diana Mitford Guinness. Her two surviving sisters took her death as an excuse to wage out all war against Diana Mitford and her family. (Mitford did eventually marry Mosley.) Irene basically raised Cimmie's children. And Baba, the youngest, well she took her place in Cimmie's bed with Mosley despite her own marriage to the Duke of Windsor's best friend. Much of the charm of the book lies in seeing certain historical figues-the Duke of Windsor, Wallis Simpson, Mosley-through the eyes of these sisters. These women certainly had interesting if not overly consequential lives.I would recommend this book to Anglophiles, to lovers of social history, and to fans of the interwar period (if you liked the movie Gosford Park, you'll love this book). If you're looking for a serious examination of the time and the history, well look elsewhere. But if you want an interesting read that will give you a "feel" for the times-then "The Viceroy's Daughters" is your book.

what were they thinking

Having read over and over again about the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, I was curious about who their peers were. Here is a book that presents a group of "wannabees" who clearly had the potential to do so much more with their lives but fell short. I found pity for the daughters who lost their loving mother. Living unfocused lives these sisters squandered themselves. This book deserves to be screened. Anyone interested in the lives of the British uppercrust will have a delicious treat.