Publisher Description
Fans of Downton Abbey now have a go-to resource for fascinating, real-life stories of the spectacular lives led by England’s aristocrats. With the novelistic flair and knack for historical detail that Catherine Bailey displayed in her New York Times bestseller The Secret Rooms, Black Diamonds provides a compelling chronicle of the Fitzwilliam coal-mining dynasty and their breathtaking Wentworth estate, the largest private home in England. When the sixth Earl Fitzwilliam died in 1902, he left behind the second largest estate in twentieth-century England, valued at more than three billion dollars in today’s money—a lifeline to the tens of thousands of people who worked either in the family’s coal mines or on their expansive estate. The earl also left behind four sons, and the family line seemed assured. But was it? As Bailey retraces the Fitzwilliam family history, she uncovers a legacy riddled with bitter feuds, scandals, and civil unrest, as the conflict between the coal industry and its miners came to a head.
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“A good book and interesting and if you are interested in Wentworth invaluable but let down by a few bad bits of geography and geology. Foe example she claims Chatsworth to be an hours ride or three hours cartridge ride away from Wentworth. Bearing in mind that the journey would have taken them through Rotherham and Sheffield then over the Derbyshire hills, I do find this a little optimistic. Similarly she goes on about the limestone at Wentworth and a few other mistakes. She is very good at trawling historical records and creating a story but she should go visit and open her eyes more.”
—
Richard (5 out of 5 stars)
