Black Diamonds: The Rise and Fall of an English Dynasty

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If you enjoy history, particularly British history, this is a great read. It has a little bit of a Downton Abbey feel which I liked and if you are interested in the period of lifestyles of the rich and aristocratic than this is a wonderful read.

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

If ever there was a book which proved fact is bigger, better, stranger than fiction then this is it! I loved reading about the rich and famous of the British aristocracy, anything with the worlds elite is always interesting since it’s out of the realm of everyday life.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. The Wentworth Estate is located between Rotherham and Barnsley in South Yorkshire, England, northeast of Sheffield. In 1902, when the historical narrative commences, it was the largest privately owned house in all of England. The fall of the Fitzwilliams’ dynasty spanned a mere fifty years. We start with the sixth earl and conclude with the tenth. That which we are promised in the book description is delivered. The nationalization and demise of the British coal industry is a central theme too. The book moves forward chronologically beginning with the funeral of the sixth earl in February 1902. In this scenario Zakes Mda weaves a plot of shifting loyalties and the conflicting values that characterise the "new" South Africa, though it was already ten years old in the time the story is set, and is another fifteen years older now. Mda then returned to Lesotho, first working with the Lesotho National Broadcasting Corporation Television Project and then as a lecturer in the Department of English at the University of Lesotho. Between 1985 and 1992 he was director of the Theatre-For-Development Project at the university and founded the Marotholi Travelling Theatre. Together with his students he travelled to villages in remote mountain regions working with local people in creating theatre around their everyday concerns. This work of writing theatre "from the inside" was the theme of his doctoral thesis, the Ph.D degree being conferred on him by the University of Cape Town in 1989. Wentworth in Yorkshire was surrounded by 70 collieries employing tens of thousands of men. It is the finest and largest Georgian house in Britain and belonged to the Fitzwilliam family.

Black Diamond, Copenhagen | kb.dk The Black Diamond, Copenhagen | kb.dk

Our goal is to make shopping easier and safer - smooth. That is why we take drastic measures to protect you as a buyer against fraud and unreliable online retailers. Whenever you see the Klarna logo in an online store, you can be sure that the store is trustworthy and meets our strict requirements. 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. 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. 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.But what I love about Bailey is that she always finds interesting aspects of British history. The scandal and the drama of real life plays out effortlessly in her writing. I find myself drawn in and captivated by what she is conveying. This book is primarily about an English Dynasty built on coal, but it is more about a period than about any one household. The family at the core of this book is one that is hard to get a good picture of because they have systematically burnt all their personal archives. Ms Bailey adds social and political events that were occurring during the period of the book (late 1800s to mid 1900s) to help flesh out the story of this dynasty. For the record Bailey does not cover the rise of the Fitzwilliams. She takes great liberties assuming the reader is already familiar with the family and entirely omits the early chapters of their history without so much as a footnote of explanation. The title was created in 1716, but Bailey's chronicle doesn't begin until 1902 with the death of the 6th Earl Fitzwilliam leaving much of the family, not to mention the origins of their wealth and influence, shrouded in mystery. The male Wentworth line ran dry and the title passed matrilineally to the FitzWilliams. Ludicrously rich, the money came from coal. The 'Estate' employed and housed the people who worked the coal; most boys went 'down't' pit'. I recall slag heaps and mine shafts scarring the countryside and an almost feudal mentality. The class system was alive and thriving. 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.