by Anne de Courcy
2004 (1992) Phoenix
392 pages
I approached this book in complete ignorance of who Edith Londonderry was. Having read three other biographies by Anne de Courcy (of which The Viceroy's Daughters: The Lives of the Curzon Sisters and Diana Mosley are brilliant), I bought this with the knowledge that she is not only is a thorough researcher, but also a skilled writer. Surely enough, in either department, I was not disappointed.Née Edith Chaplin in 1878, she married the seventh Marquess of Londonderry in 1899 and was one of the most esteemed and talented hostesses of her time. She was very active, not only being an enthusiastic hunter and socialite, but also alongside other things was the president of the British Red Cross, and the Women's Legion. Courcy describes how in the 1920s and 1930s the Londonderry House hosted frequent parties, where leading political figures and aristocracy co-mingled. PM Ramsay MacDonald was one (among many) who fell in love with Edith. He was fascinated by her looks, wit and grace, and became dependent upon her friendship. Edith was never disloyal to her husband however, despite his permanently filandering character, which Edith accepted as a fact of life.
Despite this being an interesting portrait of a dynamic and powerful woman, the work falls short of Anne de Courcy's best work. The beginning was delightfully written. The story begins in the mid-1800's with a sketch of Edith's ancestors before proceeding into the details of her own life. Edith lived to her 80th year, and nearly half the book is dedicated to the twenty-year period when she was at the height of her political stature, between about 1920 and 1940. Remarkably, only 20 pages cover the remaining period, from the Second World War to the end of her life in 1959 -- and much of these pages are merely large chunks of quotations from letters pasted together. Understandably, the interwar period was the most interesting, where both the Marquess and Marchioness of Londonderry were involved in a number of political issues. These include the Irish question in the 1920s and independent attempts to broker peace with Nazi Germany in the late 1930s, which led to the Marquess being labelled as a Nazi sympathiser, even to this day. It is no wonder therefore why this period receives such concentrated attention.
Yet, when I read a biography, it is not merely what events the person in question was connected to that make it interesting. Their reactions to their surroundings and evolution as individuals is of interest, and those of post-WWII Edith remain a mystery. Courcy described Edith's life, quoted from her letters (which were often repetitive praise if addressed to her husband), but did not quite manage to bring her to life. Who was Edith? In a sense, this book only manages to sketch her from the outside, but as readers we are incapable of understanding her as a human being, of forming any sort of connection. It is by no means from a lack of research, but rather a stylistic issue, and a matter of narrative selectivism.
Interestingly, Anne de Courcy's earlier works that I have read, this and 1939: The Last Season (1989), do not qualify as the best of the lot. The Viceroy's Daughters (2000) and Diana Mosley (2004) stand out at a distinctly superior standard. Courcy can therefore be credited with first of all her brilliant choices in biographical topics, and second with her continual improvement throughout her career as a writer.
