Bronwen Astor: Her Life and Times

by PeterStanford (Author)

• Used

  Hardcover
  2000

  $3.25

  For the first time the Astors' own version of events at Cliveden during the Profumo affair of the early 1960s can be told; and its devastating effect on the lives of Viscount Astor and his wife Bronwen. A tale of triumph over tragedy -- sex in high places, Soviet spies, political skulduggery and personal redemption. For thirty years Bronwen Astor has maintained silence over the Profumo scandal, out of respect for her dead husband's wishes and to protect his children. Now she feels the time has come to tell the truth about a period when she was in the international spotlight, a time that changed her life for ever. She lost everything in the scandal -- her husband, her home and her good name. It is a fascinating story of a couple under siege, unable to fight back against the rumour-mongerers, pressurised from every side, cold-shouldered by the establishment and, in the case of Viscount Astor, driven to an early grave. For Bronwen, it was a remarkable turn-about. Until 1963, she had been a media darling, a television presenter and super-model, feted by Pierre Balmain as the most beautiful woman in the world who married into a famous Anglo-American dynasty (Bill Astor was the son of the famous Nancy Astor). Bronwen Astor has granted Peter Stanford access to papers, diaries and records that detail life at Cliveden in the crucial period between 1961 and the death of her husband. They chart Cliveden at the height of its powers, with its famous guests, lavish parties and spectacular setting; and then its inexorable decline as the ramifications of Christine Keeler's frolics led to the disintegration of Cliveden and the end of an era for the aristocratic world of weekend parties.

• Used

  Paperback
  2001

  $3.25

  For the first time since the Profumo scandal of the 1960s, the Astors' own version of the events at Cliveden is told. Peter Stanford has been granted unprecedented access to Lady Astor, her private papers and her friends, as well as to many family members and key players in the drama. When Bronwen Pugh married into the celebrated Astor clan in 1960, she seemed to have the world at her feet. She was media darling, BBC television presenter, the most celebrated model of her generation, and, after her marriage to millionaire Bill Astor, mistress of Cliveden. Three years later her world was turned upside down by the Profumo scandal. Cliveden - with its famous guests, lavish parties and spectacular setting - was alleged to be at the centre of an international web of sexual debauchery and espionage which ultimately brought down Prime Minister Harold Macmillan. Bronwen lost everything in the scandal: husband, home, friends and her good name. Bill Astor was accused of being a louche playboy and an unfaithful husband, Bronwen as little better than Christine Keeler and Mandy Rice-Davies, the two escort girls at the centre of the scandal. Bill Astor never recovered, and he died in 1966 of a broken heart. The reversal of fortune for Bronwen Astor was immense, and in charting her private agony behind the public disgrace, Peter Stanford has written a fascinating and moving story of a remarkable and resilient woman.