The Grit in the Pearl: The Scandalous Life of Margaret, Duchess of Argyll
Lyndsy Spence
Dec 2019 · Tantor Media Inc · Narrated by Lucy Rayner
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9 hr 26 min
Unabridged
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Eligible
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About this audiobook
Margaret, Duchess of Argyll (1912-1993) was an international celebrity in her youth, adored and observed by millions. But in 1963, the year of the Profumo Affair, the 11th Duke of Argyll shocked the country when he alleged that his adulterous wife had slept with over eighty men behind his back. He produced, as his evidence, a set of sexually explicit Polaroid photographs and explosive love letters. The duke won a divorce, but this had a dramatic effect on Margaret's life. On the verge of financial destitution, she fell from grace and was abandoned by most of her friends prior to her death in a nursing home in Pimlico in 1993. Lyndsy Spence tells a tragic story of the life and downfall of this fascinatingly complex woman, and shows how she fell victim to a cruel husband, harsh social mores, and an unforgiving class. It uses new sources, including taped conversations, an unexpurgated transcript of her divorce trial, interviews, and letters. The Grit in the Pearl is a meticulously researched and powerful biography, which acts as a potent lens on various themes in the last century: fame, privacy, the media, sex, power, and relationships between classes.
About the author
Lyndsy Spence is the author of The Mitford Girls' Guide to Life, Mrs Guinness: The Rise and Fall of Diana Mitford, the Thirties Socialite, and The Mistress of Mayfair. She is the founder of The Mitford Society, a popular online community dedicated to the Mitford sisters.
Lucy Rayner is an award-winning British actress who has worked on both sides of the Atlantic in a number of theater productions and films, many of which have screened at festivals around the world. She loves to tell stories and has narrated many wonderful audiobooks.
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