John Pearson

The story of J. Paul Getty and how his enormous wealth, $4 billion divided between nineteen heirs, wreaked havoc with the lives of his family. "When sixteen-year-old Paul Getty was kidnapped, the news exploded worldwide. But his grandfather, J. Paul Getty, the richest living American, refused to pay th ransom, oblivious to his sufferings. And as the days dragged painfully on, it was Paul's distraught but determined mother Gail who was left to negotiate with his captors... In this full biography of the Getty family, John Pearson traces the creation of their phenomenal wealth and the ways in which it has touched and tainted the lives of various generations. Packed with colorful characters, bitter feuds and unexpected turns, it is a riveting insight into the lives of the super-rich." -- Page cover.

Winston Churchill's family was always the private "citadel of the heart", a source of pride and vital influence, shaping his all-important sense of destiny. But the citadel was flawed - as if each new generation of this family passed on to the next a curse bringing tragedy and scandal. ​At least seven of Churchill's ancestors suffered from chronic depression and his father died insane. Two of his children were flamboyantly alcoholic and his adored wife, Clementine, suffered long periods of acute nervous tension.

He was a lion of a man who helped shape the course of this century with his relentless ambition and fierce political instincts. Few have matched Winston Churchill's cunning or force of will. Few have seen the equal of his audacity on the battlefield or the determination with which he strove toward his own ideal of greatness. At the height of his power, he seemed to embody the ideals of the empire he helped sustain: valor, pride, and above all, tradition. His sense of personal destiny was rooted deeply in the legacy of his birthright, the heritage of his family, and the awesome responsibility of being born Churchill. In The Private Lives of Winston Churchill, John Pearson takes us behind the myth of Churchill and deep into the psychology of a dynasty that some have called the most complicated Anglo-American family of this century. In doing so, he reveals, in rich portraits, some of the family's greatest, most charismatic, and most deeply troubled members and shows us the real, private Winston Churchill. Here was a man obsessed--with himself and his dreams of glory. Yet, at the same time, he was haunted by strange anxieties and recurring depressions, by the memory of his mother, Jennie, the Brooklyn-born society beauty who counted England's most influential men among her circle of lovers, and by his father, Lord Randolph, whose extraordinary political rise was matched only by his speedy, tragic downfall. John Pearson shows how Churchill's parents and the towering achievements of his ancestor, the first great Duke of Marlborough, dominated Winston's heart and mind--just as he himself would come to dominate the fates of his own wife, son, and daughters. The Private Lives of Winston Churchill is a family saga played out against the great events and darkest hours of England's history--the world wars, the political intrigues of Parliament, the scandals that kept the Churchills in the columns, and the momentous decisions that kept them in the headlines. With Winston at the center, Pearson travels through the generations, revealing the high costs of the family's accomplishments and the suffering behind the seemingly glamorous exploits. Never before have the Churchills been observed so closely or so truly. John Pearson brings them, and their friends, lovers, and rivals, to life once more.

Analyzes the royal family's management of its scandals and errant members and its orchestration of information - flattering and unflattering - disseminated through mass communications.

John Pearson tells the story of a family who have not only been at the centre of English political and cultural life for more than four centuries, but were often remarkable figures in their own right. The dynasty was founded by Bess of Hardwick, who married four times into wealth, and used it to build her own empire and her own monument in that most Tudor of palaces, Hardwick Hall. Since then the Cavendishes have provided men who have been in the front rank of politics, science and the encouragement of the arts.

Moreton is the representative in Rome for a London insurance broker who deals at Lloyds of London. Moreton's troubles begin with the appearance of Dr. Avicenna. "Some instinct of self-preservation should have warned me against Dr. Avicenna from the start…how many times since have I cursed myself for getting so easily, so light-heartedly involved with him?" Avicenna's proposal is for a gigantic insurance policy on a dissolute Italian prince, to include a clause insuring the prince against a kidnap ransom. The subsequent events are exciting, intricate and funny.

First published in 1976, this fictional biography is the intimate and detailed portrait of the celebrated Bellamy family of the TV show Upstairs, Downstairs. No family in the past century - excepting perhaps the Forsytes - has been so dramatically exposed to public stare as the Bellamys of Eaton Place. Drawing from the diaries of Richard Bellamy, the personal letters of Lady Majorie, the Southwold Papers in the British Museum, as well as his own friendship with James Bellamy and his conversations with Mrs. Elizabeth (Bellamy) Wallace shortly before her recent death in New York City, Pearson has written a sensitive and finely detailed portrait of this patrician English family.

Growing up in the supreme moral rigour of Queen Victoria's court, young Bertie was always going to find it hard to live up to his parents' expectation. He was far from a brilliant student, and though charming, his carnal inclinations were widely rumoured to have sped up his Father's decline, with Prince Albert dying a mere two weeks after Bertie spent three nights with an actress who had been smuggled into his military camp. He waited almost sixty years to ascend the throne but was nonetheless able to reconfigure the public image of the monarch, taking the splendour beyond the palace gates and living lavishly in wider society, rapidly becoming one of the most popular monarchs in the history of the crown.

John Pearson details the lives of Reggie and Ronnie Kray, the infamous brothers who, for decades, ruled the criminal underground in London's East End. This biography of the identical twins is, at times, humorous and revealing, but always maintains a clear-eyed view of the seriousness of the brothers' crimes. An absorbing read.

Through extensive research and examination of private papers, this book exposes the fact that although Fleming might have denied the connection, the Bond books were in fact autobiographical.

A story based on true characters set in the Second World War. This book is dedicated to the members of the Bomber command and their victims, who died in this war.

"'Battle is in the curve of their nostrils', wrote Arnold Bennett of the Sitwells. 'They issue forth from their bright pavilions and demand trouble.' Poets, patrons of the arts and ardent self-publicists, the three siblings, Edith, Osbert and Sacheverell, rarely missed an opportunity to promote themselves or denounce their sworn enemy, the philistine." "They were natural subjects, and targets for the media. Unconventional, aristocratic, physically imposing (all more than six feet tall), they were bold, talented and provocative, and there were three of them. This book celebrates their lives and their artistic crusade, which brought them into contact and conflict with many of the leading figures of the arts in the early part of this century. Gertrude Stein, T. S. Eliot, Dylan Thomas and Evelyn Waugh were among their friends; their favourite enemies included Wyndham Lewis, Noel Coward and D. H. Lawrence."--BOOK JACKET.

A detailed photographic journey into the James Bond films includes dynamic stills from the movies, details on major characters, descriptions of high-tech Bond gadgets, and an updated biography of the master spy.