Stately Passions: The Scandals of Britain's Great Houses

by Jamie Douglas-Home

The story of Britain's great stately homes and the scandals, predominately sexual, which the owners and their families have been involved in from the sixteenth century to the present day. It details some of the most notorious scandals to have engulfed the British royal family and aristocracy and captures not only the events and their era, but also the essence of some of the world's greatest and most beautiful private dwellings.

From the Hampton Court of Henry VIII to the modern scandals that saw the present Lord Brocket jailed, "Stately Passions" gives centre stage to the British stately homes that have played witness to centuries of aristocratic indiscretion. Whether examining the 'Profumo Affair', the call-girl scandal at Cliveden, the home of Viscount Astor, that eventually brought down a government, or the affairs of the lesbian Vita Sackville-West and her bisexual husband, Harold Nicolson, at Sissinghurst Castle; or considering the goings-on at Fort Belvedere, the Surrey bolthole where the Prince of Wales, later King Edward VIII, conducted his affair with the American divorcee Wallis Simpson that eventually led to his abdication, "Stately Passions" provides a fascinating insight into the lives, loves - and morals, dubious though they may be - of some notorious denizens of the aristocratic world.

The Kindle edition contains updated material for 2012.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

330 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 28, 2007

Reviews

[K.J. Charles]

This book can fuck off. It's an account of aristocratic bad behaviour linked to various stately homes, eg Sandringham, Cliveden. Basically it is a non stop litany of foul, rotten selfish men and a few women getting away with vileness because rich. Actually it's mostly an account of non stop rape, only that's rarely presented as such. It's dukes "having their way" with "pretty servants" and women trapped in miserable inescapable marriages with no divorce and no rights and nothing to use but sexuality, then getting condemned for participating in male behaviour. This grim content isn't the author's fault but the chirripy tone of it really is. There's a charming account of 16yo Christine Keeler "amusingly" being chased naked round a garden by two elderly men. I'm sure she was having a whale of a time.

This is doubtless not intended to be a jolly account of rape culture in action but the author's apparent inability to extend any human feeling whatsoever to the women here, ignoring them altogether or assuming they had meaningful choices or, worst, writing as if there was any parity of power in these grossly imbalanced abusive situations is physically painful. There's a part where he says a prostitute had sex with a particularly ghastly Prince of Wales out of lust, then adds parenthetically that maybe financial considerations came into it. You don't say.

I'm tired of women's suffering going without saying. And I've read better accounts of pretty much all these scandals. So this book can fuck off.

[Maya · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh.

I love social history, and thought I'd get more out of this than I did. Most of the scandals listed herein have been covered in greater detail elsewhere, and the details of the homes themselves I found somewhat lacking. It reads more like a compilation of sex scandals among the British aristocracy and ties back only tangentially to the houses themselves. Not only that, there are almost no photographs included of the buildings themselves, only of the scandalous characters.

Disappointing.

[Anneri · Rating 1 out of 5]

SUCH a disappointment. Why, you ask?
Well, every chapter starts with a rather lifeless description of the house in question, and then proceeds to tell about the people who banged inappropriate people faintly connected with the house. This brings various problems with it: when reading the description parts, I had the feeling you'd be better of reading those leaflets you get when actually visiting the place. Plus, what's with the all the banging? The title 'The Scandals of Britain's Great Houses' makes me immediately ask different questions than who banged whom in the hall, but can we get some info on the house? Who gambled away his hunting lodge? Who employed a radical architect? Whose castle stands on the grounds of a heathen burial ground? Whose wife run away with the architect? Instead, we get banging. Rather sanctimoneous told, tbh, and still: lacking deeper understanding of what's truly going on. As one reviewer already wrote: The case of 14 year old Princess Elizabeth and her step-father?! A first rate case of grooming. Later on, we read about a 17 year old guy 'falling in love' with an 11 year old. OH REALLY?!?
Then, you've got chapters in which the house in question has nothing to do with the story the author is telling, like in the case of Sissinghurst. Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicholson bought it actually AFTER her affair with Violet Trefusis and that has nothing to do with the story apart from 'oh yeah, and she also created those super famous gardens'.
Scandals and gossip about them can tell us a lot about ourselves and how we perceive people and their era. But not in this case. It's also not engagingly written. In short, this is a proper waste of time.

[Andrea · Rating 2 out of 5]

This seemed like an easy win – awesome historic estates and homes with a some artistocratic tittle-tattle, but it fell far short of my hopes. First, the book is organized into chapters by estates/palaces which was an understandable choice. But that made it really glaring when some chapters had to roam far afield and even overseas for the scandals linked to the families – sometimes even when the families no longer had any tie to the property. Second, the overall tone of this book was rather off-putting, though I will cut it some slack for being published in 2007. Twenty some years has not been kind to this book and passages about artios carrying on with the servants read like straight up explotation and sexual abuse but are not presented as such. I also had a serious problem with the presentation of interactions between a 14-year old Elizabeth and her 40 year old “stepfather” Thomas Seymour sent me over the edge with the winky implication that Elizabeth was being rather naughty and was removed from the household by her father’s widow, Catherine Parr, as sort of completion….UGH. Let’s call that one correctly – that was gross and, in light of Seymour’s later attempts to forcibly marry Elizabeth, that was some pretty straight up abuse and grooming. Ewwww.

[rachael gibson · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good juicy reading, covering scandals in British stately homes from the 1600s right up until today.

At times it felt a little Daily Mail in tone, and I was surprised to see a fair few spelling mistakes - not to mention clunky sentences.

A good lightweight read, perfect for my holiday, if not much cop in other areas. If you're interested in scandals of the rich and famous, and can pick it up for cheap, I'd definitely recommend it.

[Emma · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very disordered. One would think organizing it by house would make sense but the constant links here, there, and everywhere, gets annoying. It's a good idea but I'm not sure anyone could've made it work well practically.

[Hannah · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't find this a great read, I found the writing style wasn't that engaging, it was based on some speculation and came off as rather prurient at times. Some interesting stuff but I think there are better books on the same theme out there.

[Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good juicy read a bit like a ye olde Take a Break. A few historical facts were wrong but a good read all the same

[emma]

Interesting

I enjoyed it. The book delivers what it says it will without being bias or overly coarse. All in all an interesting read.