Clarissa Eden: A Memoir
From Churchill To Eden
Publisher
Weidenfel and Nicolson
Published
2008
In 1955 at the astonishingly young age of 34, Clarissa Eden entered No 10 as the wife of Prime Minister, Anthony Eden.
Born Clarissa Churchill, niece of Winston Churchill, she was renowned for her beauty and her sharp intellect, mixed in academic and cultural circles and included as close friends the leading cultural figures of the twentieth century: Cecil Beaton, Isaiah Berlin and Evelyn Waugh, while writers, artists, musicians and actors, including Orson Wells, were among her acquaintances.
On her marriage to Anthony Eden, she moved into a different world of pomp and intrigue at the higher echelons of political life, privy to a multitude of top-level secrets, and a first hand witness to the backroom events which led to the Suez Crisis under her husband’s premiership.
EXTRACT
Reviews
Clarissa has a ready wit and a deliciously dry sense of humour.
DAILY MAIL. Virginia Rounding
A riveting account of London in the 1940s and 1950s - intelligent, wry and sharp. Her memoirs will become an important historical document...
LITERARY REVIEW. Jane Ridley
The point of this book is its personal portrait of an extraordinary woman, fiercely independent since childhood... makes for lively reading.
THE SPECTATOR. Raymond Carr
A tantalising memoir, with sharp observations and anecdotes, seldom cutting and never downright rude... one is left wishing for more...
THE INDEPENDENT. Ivan Fallon
Her character bounds off every page - wry, steely, inscrutable.
THE TIMES. Ed Smith
More like a character from a novel than a real person... she might have been invented by Evelyn Waugh...
DAILY TELEGRAPH. Dominic Sandbrook
As a piece of social history it is a delight, but it is more than that¿ brought together with charm and clarity, creating a picture of a world now gone that sometimes appals but mostly enchants.
MAIL ON SUNDAY. Norma Major
The book's importance lies in its myriad insights into the personalities of many of the most important artistic, social, literary, political and cultural figures of the mid-20th century significant work of social and cultural history.
THE SCOTSMAN. Andrew Roberts
Her writing is understated, carrying the light, ironic inflections of her class and period... She sits next to the great and quietly skewers them.
THE ECONOMIST
Highly entertaining... crammed with good things.