> Zed Book Club / Holiday Gift List: High Society
Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon (Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, 1900 - 2002) sits on a deckchair with a Pembroke Welsh Corgi dog (possibly Carol or Crackers) in the grounds of the Royal Lodge in Windsor Great Park, April, 1940. Photo: Lisa Sheridan/Studio Lisa/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
> Buzz
Holiday Gift List: High Society
10 books that explore the world of wealth, royalty and the aristocracy / BY Nathalie Atkinson / December 16th, 2022
These books will delight devoted followers of the goings-on at Bridgerton and Downton Abbey, and the society set of the 19th-century Gilded Age. (While you’re at it, revisit our Gilded Age Reading List from this spring.)
Obsessive Book Buyers: Zoomer editors have carefully curated our book coverage to ensure you find the perfect read. We may earn a commission on books you buy by clicking on the cover image.
1Deliberate Cruelty In Cold Blood wasn’t Truman Capote’s only true crime story: The social chronicler also vengefully wrote about the 1955 shooting death of banking heir Billy Woodward by his wife Ann, one of Capote’s so-called swans. This biographical history probes the rise and fall of their friendship, and what led Capote to write Answered Prayers, his infamous, thinly veiled fictionalized portrait of New York’s elite. Woodward took her own life shortly before the publication of an excerpt, and the gadfly was banished from high-society circles forever.
In Cold Blood wasn’t Truman Capote’s only true crime story: The social chronicler also vengefully wrote about the 1955 shooting death of banking heir Billy Woodward by his wife Ann, one of Capote’s so-called swans. This biographical history probes the rise and fall of their friendship, and what led Capote to write Answered Prayers, his infamous, thinly veiled fictionalized portrait of New York’s elite. Woodward took her own life shortly before the publication of an excerpt, and the gadfly was banished from high-society circles forever.
2Do Let's Have Another Drink!The Queen Mother’s tipple of choice was Dubonnet and gin, and one doesn’t expect a high-concept biography told through 101 anecdotes (one for each year of her life) to get to the important stuff. But this entertaining compendium reveals that underneath the “marshmallow” (as Cecil Beaton called her sweet public persona), the Queen Mum was tough as nails – she survived cancer in the 1960s, watched EastEnders, hated Camilla and, as one of the few 1930s aristocrats who actually read Mein Kampf, warned that Hitler was a real danger.
The Queen Mother’s tipple of choice was Dubonnet and gin, and one doesn’t expect a high-concept biography told through 101 anecdotes (one for each year of her life) to get to the important stuff. But this entertaining compendium reveals that underneath the “marshmallow” (as Cecil Beaton called her sweet public persona), the Queen Mum was tough as nails – she survived cancer in the 1960s, watched EastEnders, hated Camilla and, as one of the few 1930s aristocrats who actually read Mein Kampf, warned that Hitler was a real danger.
3Growing Up Getty Billionaire American oil baron J. Paul Getty was once known as the richest man in the world; the ill fortunes of his heirs are testament to the fact that money doesn’t necessarily buy happiness. Reginato – a writer-at-large for Vanity Fair – traces the notoriously frugal patriarch’s family back four generations, including the 1973 kidnapping of his grandson that was dramatized in two recent screen adaptations, through to the present-day dysfunctional family.
Billionaire American oil baron J. Paul Getty was once known as the richest man in the world; the ill fortunes of his heirs are testament to the fact that money doesn’t necessarily buy happiness. Reginato – a writer-at-large for Vanity Fair – traces the notoriously frugal patriarch’s family back four generations, including the 1973 kidnapping of his grandson that was dramatized in two recent screen adaptations, through to the present-day dysfunctional family.
4Hotel Splendide Beloved for his whimsical wall illustrations at the 1940s-era Bemelmans Bar of The Carlyle in New York, the Madeline creator’s just-reissued 1941 memoir is a hilarious tell-all account of the luxury hotel where he was a waiter in the 1920s (the Splendide is a stand-in for the Ritz). It’s a witty take on the outrageous inner workings of the hospitality ecosystem, published decades before Kay Thompson’s Eloise at the Plaza and Count Rostov of A Gentleman in Moscow would do the same.
Beloved for his whimsical wall illustrations at the 1940s-era Bemelmans Bar of The Carlyle in New York, the Madeline creator’s just-reissued 1941 memoir is a hilarious tell-all account of the luxury hotel where he was a waiter in the 1920s (the Splendide is a stand-in for the Ritz). It’s a witty take on the outrageous inner workings of the hospitality ecosystem, published decades before Kay Thompson’s Eloise at the Plaza and Count Rostov of A Gentleman in Moscow would do the same.
5My Travels with Mrs. Kennedy “When you travel with someone, you experience things that can’t be fully appreciated by anyone who wasn’t there,” writes the 90-year-old former U.S. Secret Service agent who served under five American presidents, and attempted to shield President and Mrs. Kennedy when JFK was assassinated in Dallas, Texas. Co-written with his wife, Hill’s book about his global travels with Jacqueline Kennedy includes stops in London on the way back from Pakistan in 1962 and her private luncheon with Queen Elizabeth at Buckingham Palace; here they are recounted with rare photos, loyal affection and candid emotion.
“When you travel with someone, you experience things that can’t be fully appreciated by anyone who wasn’t there,” writes the 90-year-old former U.S. Secret Service agent who served under five American presidents, and attempted to shield President and Mrs. Kennedy when JFK was assassinated in Dallas, Texas. Co-written with his wife, Hill’s book about his global travels with Jacqueline Kennedy includes stops in London on the way back from Pakistan in 1962 and her private luncheon with Queen Elizabeth at Buckingham Palace; here they are recounted with rare photos, loyal affection and candid emotion.
6The Earl and the Pharaoh Timed for the centennial of the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb, this biography by Lady Fiona Carnarvon (chatelaine of Highclere castle, where Downton Abbey is filmed) takes readers into the archives to tell the story of her forebear, amateur Egyptologist George Herbert, the 5th earl of Carnarvon, who financed archeologist Howard Carter and the expeditions in the Valley of the Kings.
Timed for the centennial of the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb, this biography by Lady Fiona Carnarvon (chatelaine of Highclere castle, where Downton Abbey is filmed) takes readers into the archives to tell the story of her forebear, amateur Egyptologist George Herbert, the 5th earl of Carnarvon, who financed archeologist Howard Carter and the expeditions in the Valley of the Kings.
7The Women of Rothschild This intimate history by the British historian who wrote the engrossing Mistresses of Cliveden satisfies the renewed interest in bygone dynasties piqued by the television series The Gilded Age. The influential financial family’s female descendants, because they were women, were excluded from the business and instead focused on politics, social reform and the arts. Beginning with the family’s origins in a Jewish ghetto in 18th-century Frankfurt, through eight generations, this is the story of their exploits.
This intimate history by the British historian who wrote the engrossing Mistresses of Cliveden satisfies the renewed interest in bygone dynasties piqued by the television series The Gilded Age. The influential financial family’s female descendants, because they were women, were excluded from the business and instead focused on politics, social reform and the arts. Beginning with the family’s origins in a Jewish ghetto in 18th-century Frankfurt, through eight generations, this is the story of their exploits.
8Your Table is Ready These tales from a New York maître d’ who enjoyed long stints at upscale Manhattan haunts like Minetta Tavern, Le Coucou and Brooklyn’s River Café cover everything from navigating stealth visits from all-important restaurant critics – including making two identical dishes, one to taste to ensure perfection before sending the other out – to exposing the foibles and status-obsessed boldface names who ate there.
These tales from a New York maître d’ who enjoyed long stints at upscale Manhattan haunts like Minetta Tavern, Le Coucou and Brooklyn’s River Café cover everything from navigating stealth visits from all-important restaurant critics – including making two identical dishes, one to taste to ensure perfection before sending the other out – to exposing the foibles and status-obsessed boldface names who ate there.
9Downton Shabby This memoir, and the related YouTube channel, chronicles a Los Angeles actor and producer’s beleaguered attempt to restore Hopwood Hall, his family’s ancestral English estate near Manchester. The 600-year-old manor — 50,000 square feet with 60 rooms — is a fixer-upper project even HGTV couldn’t fathom. The ultimate DIY project is an entertaining cautionary tale for those who fantasize about inheriting a dilapidated country pile.
This memoir, and the related YouTube channel, chronicles a Los Angeles actor and producer’s beleaguered attempt to restore Hopwood Hall, his family’s ancestral English estate near Manchester. The 600-year-old manor — 50,000 square feet with 60 rooms — is a fixer-upper project even HGTV couldn’t fathom. The ultimate DIY project is an entertaining cautionary tale for those who fantasize about inheriting a dilapidated country pile.
10Dior: The Legendary 30, Avenue Montaigne French couturier Christian Dior’s headquarters have been mythologized for decades –from the birthplace of his groundbreaking 1947 “New Look” to the wonderful recent period film Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris, about a London cleaner who dreams of owning a couture gown. To celebrate the restoration and re-opening, lavish photos take readers behind the scenes into the history, fashion archives and even the upstairs rooms that still house the haute couture ateliers, and prove the legendary status is justified.
French couturier Christian Dior’s headquarters have been mythologized for decades –from the birthplace of his groundbreaking 1947 “New Look” to the wonderful recent period film Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris, about a London cleaner who dreams of owning a couture gown. To celebrate the restoration and re-opening, lavish photos take readers behind the scenes into the history, fashion archives and even the upstairs rooms that still house the haute couture ateliers, and prove the legendary status is justified.