Broken Blood: The Rise and Fall of the Tennant Family - Couverture rigide

Blow, Simon

Couverture rigide

ISBN 10 : 0571133746 ISBN 13 : 9780571133741

Editeur : Faber & Faber, 1987

Synopsis

The Tennant family fortune was made in 1800 from the invention of bleach and by 1830 their chemical factory in Glasgow was the largest in the world. The Tennants had been poor subsistence farmers but were now among the first of the new rich of Britain's Industrial Revolution. As a new class with no place in society, they were champions of early Radicalism, marching for such measures as the passing of the 1832 Reform Bill. But as wealth, freedom, and position came to them, the Tennants bought land far from the grime of Glasgow and built themselves a mock baronial seat. By the 1880s the Tennant boys had been sent to Eton and the daughters were taking the lead in London Society. By 1900 there was a baronetcy and the family was connected to half a dozen of England's most aristocratic bloodlines. A peerage soon followed. The Tennants were merchants no more, but aristocrats adrift in the luxury of Edwardian England. Listers, Charterises, and Wyndhams became their close relations. But it was marriage to Pamela Wyndham - an aristocratic beauty - that quite turned the Tennants' direction. Brought up and indulged in fantasy by the beautiful but vain Pamela, the young Tennants of the 1920s and '30s lost touch with reality. They were still immensely rich but gradually their gilded lives turned sour. The need to make money had gone, and with it went that necessary stability. Neither good looks, talent, nor vivid personality could prevent a dissolution of purpose that was ultimately to lead to the selling of the family business in the 1960s. With that anchor removed, what positive hope could the future now hold? The Tennant history is possibly the most perfect example of a family that rose through energy and enterprise only to crumble once that hard-earned platform had been achieved. Sirhon Blow, himself a Tennant, tells his family story with sensitivity and candour.

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Faber & Faber
• Date d'édition: 1987
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 0571133746
• ISBN 13: 9780571133741
• Reliure: Relié
• Numéro d'édition: 1
• Nombre de pages: 240
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
• Personne responsable: non disponible