Heiresses: The Lives of the Million Dollar Babies

Heiresses is a glorious book, endlessly entertaining and about much more than its stated subject.Thompson is a fabulous writer' Caroline O'Donoghue 'Witty, insightful, deliciously gossip-laden and slightly scandalous...Heiresses makes for an entertaining, occasionally sad and never less than gripping read' Anne Sebba 'Excellent... [A] wonderfully entertaining book' Sunday Times'Exquisite and gossipy...Thompson, a gifted storyteller, obviously delighted in the writing of this book' TLS'[A] deeply empathetic study of heiresses through the ages' The Times'Life is less sad with money', said Emerald Cunard; Barbara Hutton was the 'Poor Little Rich Girl', but which is true?Laura Thompson explores the phenomenon of the heiress from the seventeenth to the twenty-first centuries.Take Mary Davies, a child bride at the age of twelve, and her thousand-acre dowry of today's Mayfair and Belgravia, which gave the Grosvenors their stupendous wealth. Or Consuelo Vanderbilt, Duchess of Marlborough, whos