May 17, 2011

Tuesday, 17 May 2011 – 6:00 PM

Location: Scandinavia House, 58 Park Ave (between 37th & 38th), New York City

The Royal Oak Foundation presents the Drue Heinz Lectures. The Drue Heinz Lectures are a vital part of the Royal Oak Foundation’s ongoing educational mission in the United States. Since the Drue Heinz Lectures began, Royal Oak has planned and presented over 770 lectures by over 145 speakers in 60 different cities across the United States.

MARY S. LOVELL

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Mary S. Lovell is a noted author who, in 1980, began writing after a riding injury forced her to take a sabbatical from a successful business career. Since that time, she has written several best-selling biographies on some of history’s most remarkable figures. One of her first books, Straight on Till Morning (1988), explored the life of aviatrix Beryl Markham — the first person to fly from England to America — and spent 12 weeks on the New York Times best-seller lists.

Other books include biographies on pilot Amelia Earhart, The Sound of Wings (adapted to a recent movie), adventurer Jane Digby, A Scandalous Life (1995), and the Victorian polymath and explorer, Sir Richard Burton, A Rage to Live (1998). Recent books include The Mitford Girls (2001), a biography of the celebrated Mitford sisters (titled The Sisters in the USA) and Bess of Hardwick (2006).

 

Ms. Lovell has lectured around the world, appearing at international literary festivals such as Cheltenham and Adelaide. Her latest book is The Churchills: In Love and War (Norton, 2011).

 

The Churchills: In Love and War


Of all Britain’s great families perhaps none has been so overshadowed by the force of one member’s personality as the Churchills. And yet in this vivid and brilliant tale of the dynasty – about which Gladstone remarked, “There never was a Churchill from John of Marlborough down who had either morals or principles.” – theirs turns out to be a story of epic breadth and drama.

 

 

From the First Duke of Marlborough (soldier of genius, restless empire-builder and cuckolder of Charles II) onwards, the Churchills have been politicians, gamblers and profligates, heroes and womanizers. The family continued to flourish in the 19th and 20th century, achieving power and influence in both Britain and America, helped by marriages to the New York society beauties Jennie Jerome and Consuelo Vanderbilt.

 

They lived through momentous times that included the death of Queen Victoria, two world wars, the Wall Street Crash and Great Depression and the struggle for women’s suffrage. Against this background the family was involved in political and military campaigns, the construction of great houses, domestic tragedies, disastrous marriages (ending in venereal disease, guns by the bedside and papal annulment) and a few happy unions.

 

Mary S. Lovell will present a richly layered portrait of the extraordinary Chruchill men and women. She will also talk about the towering family figure of Sir Winston Churchill, about whom Violet Asquith once said, “Ordinary men and women were bewildered by his congenital incapacity to be commonplace.”

 

For more information and ticket purchase, please visit the Royal Oak Foundation website.

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