The Life and Secrets of Almina Carnarvon

Newport writer, Bernard Pearson, offers this review of The Life and Secrets of Almina Carnarvon This scholarly and well-researched book could be as dry as an Egyptian tomb uncovered by one of its principals the Fifth Earl of Carnarvon had it not been for the author’s attention to detail and instinct for not backing away from controversy. Here opening up before us the physical and emotional idiosyncrasies of our Victorian and Edwardian ‘betters’, the philanthropists, the litigants, the loveless unions, the skeletons half in and half out of the closet, the gamblers, the rakes and adulterers, all written with an authentic eye on the facts as far as they can be established glimpsed through the ever closing ranks of the British aristocracy The author’s referencing to place and deft character portraiture have us journeying with the Countess of Carnarvon through her best of times (ironically the two world wars) and the bad times when she was ostracized by her peers on account of her near penury. Diminutive of stature but not on any account to be trifled with, the author brings Almina and her world to life as do the photographs included in the book many from private collection which chart her humanitarian work in nursing home development alongside her somewhat unorthodox amorous and fiscal arrangements from stately home grandeur to suburban anonymity. I have no doubt The book will make uncomfortable reading for some within the highest echelons of the establishment, but it neither prurient or dull and for layman and social historian alike it makes a darn good read!