Black Diamonds: The Rise and Fall of an English Dynasty

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I listened to this one on audible which was narrated beautifully. but I really wish I had a hard copy to hard as I spent a lot of time googling people and places and especially the Kennedy element of the story. To make matters worse Bailey seems to have had more than a little trouble determining the exact scope of her work. The description led me to believe this was a family history, but within the text, the personal lives and accomplishments of the Fitzwilliams frequently fell to the way side as Bailey examined the coal mining industry, class conflict and the political upheaval that characterized England in the early and mid 1900s. Though I found the information intensely interesting, I often found myself wondering how the work of a pit pony and his adolescent driver or the breakdown of a coal miner's household budget impacted the inhabitants of Wentworth. Kathleen Kennedy was featured in the book as well. There was a lengthy section on her romance with, and marriage to, a non-family member. After her husband’s death, she fell in love with Peter Fitzwilliam and died with him in a plane crash. I’d head for years about her tragic death (part of the famous Kennedy tragedies) but I had no idea that her story was part of Wentworth’s saga. The reason I didn't give it five stars is because I needed to take notes to keep up with all the Williams, since the family kept naming all their sons William...

Black Diamond: A Bruno Courrèges Investigation (Bruno Chief Black Diamond: A Bruno Courrèges Investigation (Bruno Chief

A compelling new history . . . fascinating insights into the dynasty that once ruled this Yorkshire roost' Daily Mail This is how it mostly felt when reading the book. The storyline has so much potential but it just falls so desperately short. There’s very little done to build up things; the plot takes continuous, dramatic and unexpected turns. This is especially towards the end. The ending felt so rushed, so much is happening and nothing is fleshed out. I cannot praise this book enough. I enjoyed this book so much. I found myself not being able to put it down from the moment I started reading it. Wentworth is today a crumbling and forgotten palace in Yorkshire. Yet just a hundred years ago is was the ancestral pile of the Fitzwilliams - an aristocratic clan whose home and life were fuelled by coal mining. Kristin Uys is a tough Roodepoort magistrate who lives alone with her cat. She is on a one-woman crusade to wipe out prostitution in the town for reasons that have personal significance for her. Although she is unable to convict the Visagie Brothers, Stevo and Shortie, on charges of running a brothel, she manages to nail Stevo for contempt of court and gives him a summary six-month sentence.The family charting in front was absolutely necessary. So many people, so much dysfunction. And for all their wealth, miniscule understanding of health or cure for nearly anything that ailed them. The numbers of populations that they employed! Collapse eventually, and not just for the Fitzwilliam family or Wentworth heirs. To give this a 3 star rating? Yes, I'm conflicted. My enjoyment in the reading was nearly a 5. But I love historical text and this work held much of that social mores, economics of changing industry, class conflict, and governmental parsing and perceptions far beyond it's title designation. His first play, We Shall Sing for the Fatherland, won the first Amstel Playwright of the Year Award in 1978, a feat he repeated the following year. He worked as a bank clerk, a teacher and in marketing before the publication of We Shall Sing for the Fatherland and Other Plays in 1980 enabled him to be admitted to the Ohio University for a three-year Master's degree in theatre. He completed a Masters Degree in Theatre at Ohio University, after which he obtained a Master of Arts Degree in Mass Communication. By 1984 his plays were performed in the USSR, the USA, and Scotland as well as in various parts of southern Africa. One major problem is the author's interest in perpetuating stereotypes and using descriptions or quotes that incorporate the most racist and sexist language. "Half-breeds" is used without examination, a "spinster is -- what else -- "pinch faced," and how many times do we have to hear that the heir is "fat"? Joe Kennedy's foul mouth is quoted, and even a racist slogan of a candy bar, apropos of nothing.

Black Diamonds: The Rise And Fall Of A Great English Dynasty

Pre WW1 the British aristocracy would do whatever was necessary to protect themselves. Post WW1 they all came home to a very different Britain and so begins a slow and painful demise of one the most powerful families in Britain. Add to that the incredible links and direct connections to an incredibly rich, young, up and coming American Dynasty called The Kennedy's and you have an absolute must read book! I'm amazed at the obsession with having a male heir, as well as the apparent extraordinary difficulty in producing one. But when all possible male descendants are extinct, the Earldom disappears.I can highly recommend this book. It’s now one for my favourites shelf and I will source a hard copy for my real life book shelf to sit alongside Fey's war. The book brilliantly sets out the social differences of the time, the age old fight between capitalism and socialism. It also shows that wealth and titles really don't bring happiness. The weight of expectation surrounding the Fitzwilliam name, the in fighting to protect their name is shown in its brutal truth in this book. What makes the book particularly good is that as the years pass the focus varies, even if the common denominator is the family’s wealth from the mining of coal. A book just on the nationalization of the British coal industry could easily be boring and dry. Here there are exciting events, personal tales and intriguing questions about the family to be investigated. Here follows one example. The father of the seventh earl, Lord Milton, died before the death of the sixth. So the grandson, not the son, of the sixth became the seventh earl. Am I confusing you? Don’t worry, it is very clear in the book. Circumstances under which the seventh was born are extremely peculiar. He was born in Canada in 1872 in an Indian settlement on Lake Superior. His father had epilepsy which made him an unacceptable heir; there was need for a male heir without the taint of epilepsy. The more you learn the more your interest is piqued. Has the baby who was to become the seventh earl been exchanged for a healthy male child? Something fishy was certainly going on! We are given the known facts; they certainly make for an intriguing mystery. Each reader must decide for them self. The story is engagingly told. My point is that as the years pass we encounter not one but several such captivating episodes. History comes in between so you have a solid base on which to stand, but the book does not put you to sleep. Listen to a conversation between Maureen Mahon and Bridgett M. Davis, sponsored by Greenlight Bookstore Sometimes the truth is stranger than fiction. Catherine Bailey chronicles the rise and fall of the Fitzwilliam coal mining dynasty in Yorkshire England.