The Grit in the Pearl: The Scandalous Life of Margaret, Duchess of Argyll (The shocking true story behind A Very British Scandal, starring Claire Foy and Paul Bettany)

by Lyndsy Spence

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The shocking true story behind A Very British Scandal, starring Claire Foy and Paul Bettany Margaret, Duchess of Argyll’s life was one of complexity and controversy. Born Ethel Margaret Whigham, the only child of a Scottish self-made millionaire and a beautiful high-society woman, her childhood was rich and splendid – but empty. She was a daddy’s girl with an absent father, living with a jealous mother who sought to remind Margaret of her every shortcoming. As she grew up, her name was a byword for class and beauty; she was the debutante of her coming-out year, and her marriage to Charles Sweeny literally stopped traffic. But it was not to last: Margaret needed more. What followed was a story of tragedy, scandal and heartbreak as Margaret swung from lover to lover, society to society. This culminated in her notorious divorce case of 1963, where her soon-to-be-ex-husband produced his pie`ce de résistance: a Polaroid of her in a compromising position with two other men. In The Grit in the Pearl, Lyndsy Spence takes a look at a woman who was ahead of her time. Using previously unpublished sources and personal transcripts, this is the story of a fragile woman who was to come up against the very highest echelons of English high society – and lose.

  • ISBN10 0750991062
  • ISBN13 9780750991063
  • Publish Date 1 June 2020 (first published 11 February 2019)
  • Publish Status Active
  • Publish Country GB
  • Imprint The History Press Ltd
  • Edition 2nd edition
  • Format eBook (EPUB)
  • Pages 256
  • Language English