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The Red Earl Lady Selina Hastings

The Red Earl By Lady Selina Hastings

The Red Earl by Lady Selina Hastings


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The Red Earl Summary

The Red Earl: The Extraordinary Life of the 16th Earl of Huntingdon by Lady Selina Hastings

In The Red Earl Selina Hastings tells the extraordinary story of her father, Jack Hastings, 16th Earl of Huntingdon. In 1925, Hastings infuriated his ultra-conservative parents by turning his back on centuries of tradition to make a scandalous run-away marriage. With his beautiful Italian wife he then left England for the other side of the world, further enraging his family by determining on a career as a painter. The couple settled first in Australia, then on the island of Moorea in the South Pacific. Here, they led an idyllic existence until a bizarre accident forced them to leave the tropics forever. En route back to England, they stopped for a year in California, where Hastings continued to paint while enjoying a glamorous social life with actors such as Charlie Chaplin and Douglas Fairbanks. While in San Francisco, Hastings met the great Mexican artist Diego Rivera, and persuaded him to take him on as an assistant. For the next nearly four years he lived at close quarters with Rivera and with his wife, Frida Kahlo, first in San Francisco, then Detroit, and finally Mexico City. When eventually Hastings returned home it was to be faced with fighting on all fronts: in Spain during the Civil War; in England with his parents; and lastly with his wife, determined to keep him locked into a marriage from which by now he was desperate to escape. This enthralling story, superbly well written, not only gives a new perspective on two of the 20th-century's greatest artists, Rivera and Kahlo, but also reveals in fascinating detail the private life of an aristocratic family of 100 years ago.

The Red Earl Reviews

As well as being a fascinating vignette of pre-war upper class bohemia, this is also a book written with the passionate love of a daughter. It is Selina Hastings's most exhilarating and perfect book -- A.N.Wilson
The remarkable, and very well written, story of the author's father, Jack Hastings, the 16th Earl of Huntingdon ...This is life lived to the full, with never a dull moment -- Sebastian Shakespeare * Tatler *
Honest, stylish, witty and affectionate, The Red Earl offers a beautifully realised portrait of an enigmatic personality by an author at the height of her powers -- Miranda Seymour * Daily Telegraph *
(Jack Hastings's) adventures are brilliantly and affectionately told by his daughter: award-winning biographer Selina Hastings ... the delight of this book is in the small details the author has uncovered about the extraordinary life her father led before she was born ... Jack packed more into the first 20 years of his adult life than most people do into a lifetime and this wonderful celebration of one man's determination to have his own way is a pure delight -- Caroline Jowett * Daily Express *
An elegantly written and enjoyable memoir ... Hastings writes like an angel -- Jane Ridley * The Oldie *
A lively and touching memorial -- Nicholas Clee * Observer *
A captivating account ... What motivates a fine biographer like Hastings is the refusal to accept this intrinsic unknowability which all of us share. It's partly why we go on writing the lives of others; why we continue to recalibrate and improve our relationship with figures from the past, and so, possibly, with ourselves * Daily Telegraph *

About Lady Selina Hastings

Selina Hastings is a writer by profession, and has published several highly acclaimed biographies: Nancy Mitford, Evelyn Waugh (winner of the Marsh Biography Prize), Rosamond Lehmann and The Secret Lives of Somerset Maugham. She is the recipient of the Spear's Award For Outstanding Achievement for a body of work and the Biographers' Club Lifetime Services to Biography Award.

Table of Contents

1. From Sherwood Forest to Sharavogue \ 2. To catch an Heiress \ 3. The Runaway Marriage \ 4. Escape to Australia \ 5. Idyll in the South Pacific \ 6. Rivera's apprentice \ 7. Conversion to Communism \ 8. Disillusion and the Spanish Civil War \ 9. Painting and Politics \ 10. The Secret Revealed..?

Additional information

GOR011890406
9781408187364
1408187361
The Red Earl: The Extraordinary Life of the 16th Earl of Huntingdon by Lady Selina Hastings
Used - Like New
Hardback
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
2014-10-09
224
N/A
Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
The book has been read, but looks new. The book cover has no visible wear, and the dust jacket is included if applicable. No missing or damaged pages, no tears, possible very minimal creasing, no underlining or highlighting of text, and no writing in the margins

Customer Reviews - The Red Earl