
The Mad Boy, Lord Berners, My Grandmother And Me (Hardback)
Sofka Zinovieff (author)
£25.00
Hardback
448 Pages
Published: 16/10/2014
Published: 16/10/2014
Faringdon House in Oxfordshire was the home of Lord Berners, composer, writer, painter, friend of Stravinsky and Gertrude Stein, a man renowned for his eccentricity - masks, practical jokes, a flock of multi-coloured doves - and his homosexuality. Before the war he made Faringdon an aesthete's paradise, where exquisite food was served to many of the great minds, beauties and wits of the day. Since the early thirties his companion there was Robert Heber-Percy, twenty-eight years his junior, wildly physical, unscholarly, a hothead who rode naked through the grounds, loved cocktails and nightclubs, and was known to all as the Mad Boy. If the two men made an unlikely couple, at a time when homosexuality was illegal, the addition to the household in 1942 of a pregnant Jennifer Fry, a high society girl known to be 'fast', as Robert's wife was simply astounding. After Victoria was born the marriage soon foundered (Jennifer later married Alan Ross). Berners died in 1950, leaving Robert in charge of Faringdon, aided by a ferocious Austrian housekeeper who strove to keep the same culinary standards in a more austere age.
This was the world Sofka Zinovieff, Victoria's daughter, a typical child of the sixties, first encountered at the age of seventeen. Eight years later, to her astonishment, Robert told her he was leaving her Faringdon House. Her book about Faringdon and its people is marvellously witty and full of insight, bringing to life a vanished world and the almost fantastical people who lived in it.
Publisher: Vintage Publishing
ISBN: 9780224096591
Number of pages: 448
Weight: 1392 g
Dimensions: 240 x 184 x 32 mm
MEDIA REVIEWS
"As classy and consuming a memoir as you're likely to read all autumn." -- Caroline Sanderson Bookseller "Prepare to be seduced by outlandish delights and strange creatures." -- Sebastian Shakespeare Tatler "Sumptuous." -- Daisy Goodwin Sunday Times "A vivid sketch of the extraordinarily glamourous society of Faringdon in its heyday, especially during the 30s." -- Dinah Birch Guardian "Zinovieff is an entertaining and amiable companion on this, at times, uncomfortable romp through her family saga." -- Sara Wheeler The Times
You may also be interested in...
Sign In / Register
Not registered? CREATE AN ACCOUNTCREATE A plus ACCOUNT
Sign In
Download the Waterstones App
Would you like to proceed to the App store to download the Waterstones App?
Click & Collect
Reserve online, pay on collection
Thank you for your reservation
Your order is now being processed and we have sent a confirmation email to you at
When will my order be ready to collect?
Following the initial email, you will be contacted by the shop to confirm that your item is available for collection.
Call us on or send us an email at
Unfortunately there has been a problem with your order
Please try again or alternatively you can contact your chosen shop on or send us an email at