Catherine Bailey (1)Recensioni

The author of the wonderful 'Black Diamonds' hasn't disappointed in this tale from Belvoir Castle. She'd set out simply to document the castle's custodians, the Rutland family, and their contribution to WWI. Inspecting the family records, detailed ones extending back to the 12th century, she discovered tantalising and recent gaps. These gaps had been very carefully made by John, 9th Duke of Rutland and amateur archivist. Why? It took some super-sleuthing to find out, and Catherine Bailey has made a gripping page-turner of the story she was able to uncover. No spoiler alerts here. You'll just have to read the book for yourselves.

enjoyed the first hand glimpse of how one family at a certain time and place dealt with the larger world affairs that get recorded in the history books.

This book was absolutely gripping. The story of Fey Pirzio-Biroli is completely captivating. The daughter of a German diplomat and the wife of an Italian aristocrat and member of the Resistance, Fey had a front row seat to the disastrous regimes of both Hitler and Mussolini. After her father was implicated in trying to assassinate Hitler, Fey and her two young sons were arrested, then separated. Her husband, working with the Resistance movement, was away at the time. Later, Fey and her sons were separated, and Fey was sent away to be used as a political prisoner and a bargaining chip. Eventually, she was interned at notorious concentration camps.

The story pulls you in right away, and in fact reads like a novel. Very, very highly recommended for WWII enthusiasts, lovers of a good story, and anyone just looking for a fantastic read.

Nachdem das Attentat von Stauffenberg gegen Hitler fehlschlagen ist, ändert sich das Leben von Fey von Hassell dramatisch. Ihre zwei und vier Jahre alten Söhne werden von der SS entführt und in einem Waisenhaus in Wiesenhof untergebracht. Während die am Attentat beteiligen Personen zum Tode verurteilt werden, werden ihre Angehörigen festgenommen und kommen ins KZ. Auch Fey gehört dazu, da ihr Vater Ulrich von Hassell an dem Attentat beteiligt war. Sie wird am Ende des Krieges befreit. Doch was ist aus ihren Kindern geworden?
Catherine Bailey erzählt eine bewegende und dramatische Geschichte, aber sie tut es auf eine sachliche und etwas trockene Art, so dass ich immer ein wenig distanziert blieb. Aber vielleicht ist es nur so möglich, das Schreckliche auszuhalten. Es ist eine Geschichte, die auf Tatsachen beruht. Mit der Unterstützung von Fey von Hassells Familie konnte die Autorin anhand von Dokumenten diese Geschichte aufschreiben.
Fey von Hassells Vater ist Diplomat. Sie ist verheiratet mit dem italienischen Adlige Detalmo Pirzio-Biroli und lebt in der Nähe von Venedig. Ihr Mann ist im italienischen Widerstand. Nach dem missglückten Attentat ändert sich Ihr Leben drastisch. Ihre Söhne Corrado und Roberto werden nach der Entführung ins Waisenhaus gebracht und sie erhalten neue Identitäten. Sie sollen auf Befehl von Himmler später von linientreuen Familien adoptiert werden. So ging es vielen Kindern und ihren Familien.
Es ist menschenverachtend, wie die Nazis die Menschen für ihre Zwecke missbrauchten haben. Nach Belieben haben sie Familien auseinandergerissen. Je mehr der Untergang des Reiches zu erkennen war, umso verzweifelter und furchtbarer wurden die Aktionen des Regimes. Bewundernswert ist es, dass es Menschen gab, die diesem Wahnsinn ein Ende setzen wollten, ungeachtet der Risiken, die das für sie und ihre Familien mit sich brachten.
Dieses Buch ist ein erschütterndes Zeitzeugnis über eine dunkle, furchtbare Epoche. Empfehlenswert, wenn auch nicht leicht zu lesen.

An absorbing read. An excellent account of the life of the rich in contrast with the poor set in Yorkshire centered on the wealthy Fitzwilliam family. Starting before the first World War it traces the family history, it's ups and downs, good and bad. Black diamonds refers to coal which is the source of the families fortune. The book give a fascinating insight into the life lived behind the social front. Also the plight of the poor, especially the miners. The author's research has brought to life a series of family members. Excellent.

Fascinating read. The pictures in the back are a nice touch. I wouldn't mind taking a tour of Belvoir Castle if I'm ever in the area.

Very interesting, well written combination of history and family saga!

The Secret Rooms, billed as A True Gothic Mystery, is a kind of biography of the 9th Duke of Rutland. I found it an interesting enough read, but I felt it didn't quite live up to the title and the really intriguing cover.

The book opens with the death of the Duke in 1940, then the author describes how she came across his story some years later - she had set out to research something slightly different. While looking at his papers, she discovered that someone, probably the Duke, had been keen to conceal various papers and that it appeared he had something to hide - what was it?

I enjoyed the look at the life of an aristocratic family in the early 20th century, before and after WWI, but felt a bit like saying, is that all there is to it? at the revelations. I think part of the problem was that the author kept writing about the sensational secrets she was uncovering, and they weren't that sensational.

The print book comes with some black and white photos (not that well reproduced) of the Duke and his family, and various maps and plans of his estate, his home, Belvoir Castle, and other significant places in the story, and lots of endnotes detailing the author's references.

This is clearly meticulously researched and an interesting read but the mystery is not as exciting as the title leads one to expect.

Reviewed 21 March 2013 as part of the Amazon Vine programme.

If you're looking for something spooky, this isn't your book. However, if you like Downton Abbey with more mystery, this might just be the ticket for your reading pile.

Great and intriguing mystery with numerous layers at the start and through the middle; loses its punch and focus a bit once WWI becomes the focal point of the book.

My biggest regret was that the "haunted castle" part in the subtitle really only equates to a paragraph very early in the book. Alas, my expectations weren't met because of that, though the history and biographic bits held my interest through to the end.

The Secret Rooms, A True Story of A Haunted Castle, A Plotting Duchess, & A Family Secret, by Catherine Bailey, is a magnificent telling of a suspenseful story centered around World War I. General reviewers have criticized Bailey's detailed recounting of her research through multiple archives and thousands of individual documents in solving the mystery but that detail is just what genealogists will find wonderful about this book. She was unable to answer all the questions she had but again, that is what real research is like; sometimes you get lucky, sometimes you reach a dead-end.

Wow! Talk about privilege in the 1900's! What a story Catherine Bailey puts together from bits and pieces she was able to find of the Dutchess.

History is everything but boring within Belvoir Castle . . .

Why was the physician of King George VI expected? Most astonishing of all, why was this physician and others awaiting the patient to be ready for them?

These questions show only the beginning of the Duke of Rutland mystery, while England was entering the fray of World War I. Other issues plagued the hierarchy landing many in a state of turmoil long before the war. In fact, to some, the war was a welcome act, to others it marked the end of a lifestyle, and to some, it was a fear like no other.

To understand this time and culture one needs to understand the history. Further, one needs to know that history has the ability to change, albeit not sometimes unexpectedly. Moreover, one needs to realize the family dynamic. The family position was, well, everything and appearances mattered daily. However, it was the first-born male heir who mattered most, but this young heir landed at death's door.

Was it an accident? Or an illness? Or was it something more?

Catherine Bailey brings to life yesteryear that Downton Abbey fans will relish, and her riddle manages to capture mystery lovers and history buffs too.

The lives in this story will have you enthralled, as you race to find answers that lay just beyond indecorum and falsehoods. Strong women, weak men, appear inside the walls of Belvoir Castle, but roles change as their time progresses. If you are like me, you'll believe that just maybe someone still living is suspicious that things weren't right in the past.

A look at the history of coal mining and the downfall of the Fitzwilliam family. This book is definitely more about the former than the latter. Of course, the Fitzwilliams are woven into this tapestry of superb storytelling. For me, the most interesting part of the book was Peter, 8th Earl Fitzwilliam. He seemed to invigorate the story where it needed it most. His romance with Kathleen Kennedy, sister of the late President of the USA, was tragic and heartbreaking. The sections about coal and the lives led by the coal miners seemed to drag on.

Still, an interesting look for those who love to read about the titled British families.

I love Catherine Bailey - she really knows how to weave a fantastic tale out of the bare facts of historical research. Her book on Wentworth Woodhouse was fascinating, but this account of Belvoir Castle and the Duke of Rutland is truly captivating! I may have read too much historical fiction, but I could almost imagine I was reading a novel, not the real lives of an aristocratic family in the twentieth century. John Manners, the 9th Duke of Rutland, died in 1940, but had squirreled himself away in a set of 'secret rooms' in the family castle before dying alone, determined to finish something of great importance before time ran out. Nearly 70 years later, the author arrives at Belvoir with a special pass to visit the Duke's rooms and research the family archives - five rooms of documents dating back centuries - for a planned book on the First World War. What she discovered was far more intriguing - John had apparently censored his own history in the reams of correspondence, for three particular dates - 1894, when he was eight, 1909,when he was a diplomat's assistant in Rome, and 1915, when he was serving in France during WW1. Why? What was John trying to hide?

I was absolutely riveted - missing letters, secret codes, family secrets (of course), and Catherine Bailey's cleverly paced cliffhangers! A hidden batch of letters, a trunk of overlooked correspondence, the cracking of the code - the pieces all slowly start to come together, and while the revelations are not exactly devastating (must be all that historical fiction), the final family portrait of the Manners family is both decadent and dysfunctional. Someone should turn this book into a miniseries! The curmudgeonly duke and his cruel wife, their lonely son who abandons duty for love, and the secret rooms at the castle. There's even a dodgy American spy thrown in for good measure! Yes, the final chapters are slightly repetitive, drawing out the reason behind John's wartime secret, but overall, a well-researched and exciting historical 'mystery'.

I seriously cannot recommend this book enough - fact is freakier than fiction!

There is a lot to wade through in this book. It is well written and a fascinating look at the immense amount of research the author did to solve the mysteries involved. Even more so, it provides great insight into the lives and machinations among the English aristocracy in the early 20th century. Most of the focus is on the details of the research and not on characters, but I liked the mystery-solving aspects.½

Black Diamonds is the story of the Earls Fitzwilliam and their family, who built a fortune on the backs of South Yorkshire coal miners and then watched it all fall to ruin. The family thrived on secrets and their love of secrecy (combined with a tradition of inter-generational hatred) proved to be their undoing. If you want to read about a group of questionable people living the high life while doing sordid things behind the scenes, but in a classy way, this book is for you. If you like it when the little man gets his say, this book is for you. There's even a healthy dose of Kennedy family conspiracies (anyone who thinks the rot in the Catholic Church set in after Vatican II needs to read the part where Kathleen goes bishop-shopping). Overall, I think I liked The Secret Rooms better, but that was one of the best books I read that year, so this one is still quite good.

For those who like their histories British and their revenge served coaled. Highly recommended.

I don't think I have ever learned so much about so many different aspects of English social history from one book before! Ostensibly about Wentworth Woodhouse, a magnificent 300-room country house near Rotherham, and the Earls of Fitzwilliam who lived there for two hundred and fifty years, Catherine Bailey also manages to include scandal, mining, two World Wars and the Kennedys in her riveting history.

I was also torn between two opposing factions while reading - sympathy for the South Yorkshire miners, who worked in dangerous, inhuman conditions for a pittance while the 'mineral owners' reaped billions for nothing more than inheriting land, and heart-rending horror over the final fate of such a beautiful house and grounds (I was wishing that 'Manny' Shinwell suffered for his spiteful crime, but the miserable old bugger lived to 101!) Yes, the pre-war imbalance of power and wealth was revolting - although I don't think we have advanced all that much - but destroying such an immense site of local and historic worth out of bitter envy was hardly the answer. I am so glad that Wentworth survived both family and foes to grace the landscape today - and the house is finally open to visitors! Yay!

Back to the book, Catherine Bailey's account of the Fitzwilliams - who destroyed over sixteen tons of family papers to hide a murky family secret - and the local history surrounding Wentworth is both fascinating and and engaging. Nothing is superfluous, from the life of 'Kick' Kennedy who died in mysterious circumstances with Peter Fitzwilliam to the Sankey Commission of 1919 and the first attempt to nationalise mining, and every last detail is worth knowing. Yes, I spent a whole week just on this one book, but I don't begrudge a single second!

Catherine Bailey's done it again. I loved her earlier book, The Secret Rooms, and this new one, Black Diamonds (Penguin), is just as good. Bailey's subject this time is another aristocratic English family and their home (the Earls Fitzwilliam and Wentworth House), but unlike her previous book, this time she's not faced with a surfeit of family records, but rather a severe shortage of them, since the Fitzwilliams have consciously destroyed many of their own papers and records. And not without cause, it would seem: Bailey chronicles the astounding family dramas of the Fitzwilliam clan, and if you think "Downton Abbey" has gotten soapy, those folks have nothing on this crowd! It's almost unbelievable to think that all the things Bailey recounts could possibly all have happened to the same family over just a few generations, and naturally it all makes for riveting reading.

Even as the family members treated each other pretty terribly, though, Bailey makes clear their quite enlightened attitudes toward their leaseholders and those who worked in the coal mines owned by the estate. I'm sure I won't be the only one pleasantly surprised at this.

I do wish that Bailey had gone into a bit more depth about the rise of the Fitzwilliam family, and also that she had spent some more time on the later period, which feels just a bit rushed. But this is a fantastic read and I recommend it very highly.

Fans of "Downton Abbey" are led to believe that the Crawley family wealth comes from the earnings of the bucolic farms that surround Downton Abbey. However, if Julian Fellowes were more honest, he'd let viewers know that, in all probability, their large income was derived from coal just as it was for the Carnavon family in whose Highclere Castle the show is set. This book is the story of an even wealthier aristocratic family, the Fitzwilliams, who at the beginning of the twentieth century were the wealthiest family in England and whose wealth was derived from the labor of men and boys (some as young as eleven) who toiled underground for twelve to fifteen hours a day. Their county estate in south Yorkshire was called Wentworth and it was England’s largest private home, with 1,000 windows, and its park wall running for nine miles. When the sixth Earl Fitzwilliam died in 1902 he left four sons and his dynasty and fortune seemed secure. But the class war of the twentieth century combined with the family's own follies, brought it all crashing down around them.

The book gives a vivid picture of the yawning gap between the wealthy aristocracy and the workers who supported their lifestyle. Although the FItzwilliams were beneficent mine owners (unlike some of the purely corporate mining interests) the gap between the family and the miners was vast, and beginning in the 1920's with the rise of the Labour party, no amount of kindly charity from the big house was going to satisfy the workers' demands for a better life. Although the family survived the General Strike in 1926, the Depression and then World War II spelled the end of their financial empire.

The eighth Earl, Peter, was the last person of consequence to hold the title. He was a dashing war hero who today is largely remembered for being Kathleen Kennedy;s married lover who died with her in a plane crash in 1948. The book spends altogether too much time discussing Ms Kennedy's history and her relationship with Peter (about 100 pages!) that lends little to the understanding of the story of the family and its wealth. I can only guess it was included to appeal to the seemingly endless fascination with everything Kennedy on both sides of the Atlantic.

After his death the title went to Peters alcoholic uncle and then to a distant cousin who died without producing any sons, thus the title is today extinct. After a long decline into semi-ruin, Wentworth House is now owned by someone unrelated to the family and is open for tours costing from $15 to $38 per head and for rental as a wedding venue.

The book does an excellent job of detailing both the lavish lifestyle of the aristocracy as well as the grinding poverty of the mineworkers and the glee with which Labour party officials confiscated the mines - even to the point of strip mining on the grounds of Wentworth. It would be nice to say that as a result, the workers in the area are living better life today, thanks to the mas closing of collieries in the 1980's by Margaret Thatcher, the area has one of the highest rates of unemployment in Britain today.

The Secret Rooms by Catherine Bailey is a complex tale of family, betrayal, and influence in a time when men were killed at war by the tens of thousands. For the full review, visit The Book Wheel.

I wanted to give this 3.5 and it took me a while to decide which way to go. It's a true story: Catherine Bailey went to Belvoir to do research on the estate workers who left in droves to fight in the First World War, and ended up pursuing instead a mystery concerning gaps in the family archives and the circumstances of the death of one of the Dukes of Rutland. As it's a real story, not all the loose ends are tied up. There are few sympathetic characters in the tale, and I found the style of narrative a little irritating: she is, I suppose inevitably, an intrusive narrator and the book is as much about her investigation as it is about the family history itself. Her descriptions were stiff but again, she had to struggle with the contrast between the facts she had learned and the scenes she was picturing and to an extent inventing for herself. The story turned out to have many depressing aspects and at some points I struggled to make myself read on. However, it is well-researched. I've also had her earlier book, Black Diamonds, recommended to me, but I can't quite bring myself to start it just yet.

I still don't like this writer's style, but I preferred this to the second one, The Secret Rooms, which I expected to enjoy more. She still dots about a good bit and puts in far, far too much detail (I honestly don't think I need to know the colour of the ink on the map used by the German navigator in the plane that just missed bombing the big house); she's completely money-obsessed; and she persists in writing narratives that pretend to know what was going on in the heads of the historical characters. I know, plenty of people do it, but somehow her style always makes me stop and think - 'So how does she know that, then?' Still, I read it with interest and learned a good deal that was more generally useful and interesting than the colour of Luftwaffe maps.

Catherine Bailey kept me glued to the page throughout two-thirds of this book. When she first entered the Muniment Rooms of Belvoir Castle, I was flabbergasted as she began telling of all the historical documents the ninth duke had amassed, and how he had organized and cataloged them. The discovery of the three missing periods during his life led to a fascinating recounting of how she managed to fill in the blanks. Touted as a book for fans of "Downton Abbey," I would not disagree because The Secret Rooms tells much of aristocratic life in Britain before and during the First World War. But this book is more than an historical accounting of a great family; it has much to share of a psychological nature as Bailey exposes secrets the family wanted to remain hidden. (The ninth duke was so successful that the current duke had no clue of what the author discovered.)

It's not my place to divulge what those secrets were, but in the unveiling of the one involving the first year of the war, I felt the author went off the rails a bit. Once the reader knows what was hidden, why, and who was responsible, Bailey goes into minute detail over each fact that she discovered and how it was discovered. Instead of making me feel outrage and sorrow at what was done, I soon became impatient and my enthusiasm for the book as a whole began to wane from its original high. Two-thirds of The Secret Rooms is fascinating,and I'm glad I read it, but that final third does drag a bit.

This may end up one of the best books I read all year. Not only did Catherine Bailey find a fascinating mystery to solve, but the way she writes is very good. She intersperses questions that went through her mind and hooks to answers she found, but isn’t ready to reveal. If she hadn’t done that, the mystery itself would have probably been interesting enough to carry the book, but I wouldn’t have enjoyed the tale so much. She also does a great job of balancing expository information and clues and advancements in the tale. That way we readers (especially non-British subjects) understand context and import of why what she found was so astonishing (or didn’t find in some cases).

Having watched a couple seasons of Downton Abbey, I can see definite similarities and wonder if a little of Belvoir is in the mix for the show. The allure of that vanished way of life is intensely appealing in a lot of ways. To have that much money, privilege and power is astonishing in this day and age. In some ways I am saddened that the English economy and socio-political structure collapsed, shutting it down entirely, but it had to happen. Luckily many large estates still survive, if in a shrunken state.

I won’t get into specifics because it’s better to read this one without knowing too many of the turning points ahead of time, but not all of the 3 central secrets are totally solved. Haddon’s death (don’t worry that detail comes early) is still shrouded in lies and euphemisms. For it and the other secrets, my mind ran away with me hard down the road of speculation. Much of what I suspected didn’t turn out to be true, but it was fun to guess and reformulate based on a new item uncovered by the writer.

The lengths that Violet goes to are extreme and lays her psyche open pretty well. She was so indulged her whole life that any and all thoughts, actions or approaches were automatically sanctioned not only by her, but by everyone around her. The result is a thoroughly self-centered and ruthless person. Cruelty, lies, manipulation, whatever it took to keep Violet feeling in control and able to stay safely away from what hurt her was on the table. Despite her circumstances, I think she was in denial a lot of the time. What was baffling was her intense efforts on John’s behalf in the latter half of his life after virtually ignoring him for the first half. In this day and age, the family’s treatment of John could be construed as abuse; certainly neglect. Emotionally he was left out to dry and it’s no wonder that the became a solitary, bookish person rather than the social powerhouse his new role as eldest son required of him. I don’t know if he ever settled to his fate, but in the end he took steps to try to erase the unseemly parts of his legacy. Lucky for us he didn’t entirely succeed.

This is a true story that reads like fiction. Every chapter left me wanting to find out more; it was difficult to stop reading. Despite its considerable size I even took it on the bus for a couple of days. I also liked that it had three photo sections (whenever I read a biography or history book I flip to the photos first). And as I read, it brought to mind Parade's End, Robert Graves, the British WW1 poets and Downton Abbey (if only because it mentions Grantham). I imagine if you like any of those, this would be of interest to you as well.