Those Wild Wyndhams (80 page)

Wyndham, Percy ‘Perf’ (son of George Wyndham) 296, 297, 298, 302, 309–10

Wyndham (née Leverson), Violet 363

Wyndham, Sir William 256

Writing thanks for a project that has taken some eight years from inception to publication is a daunting prospect. My first debts are to Anthony Cheetham, who came up with the idea for this book, and to my incomparable agent Georgina Capel, who with extraordinary tenacity has brought that idea to fruition. Without them, this book would never have come into being. Then thanks are to my clear-sighted editor Arabella Pike at William Collins, whose incisive comments have immeasurably improved the work; to all her team for their hard work and endless patience, in particular Stephen Guise, Joseph Zigmond and Katherine Patrick; and to Peter James, for his sympathetic copy-editing.

The research for this book has taken me to libraries, archives, record offices and private homes all over the country. The following institutions and archives generously gave me access to, and permission to quote from, their collections, and their staff were unfailingly helpful: the Bodleian Library; British Library; Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge; Hertford Archives; National Records of Scotland; National Library of Scotland; and Somerset Record Office. Thanks also to the staff of the Cheshire Record Office and the West Sussex County Council Record Office for allowing me to read private collections on site, and to the staff of the London Library. For access to private collections, I am grateful to the Earl of Egremont; Hugo Vickers; the Whittingehame Estate; Francis Wyndham; and others. Lord Wemyss has been generous beyond measure in allowing me access to the Stanway archives, and granting me permission to reproduce images in the Stanway Collection. James and Olinda Adeane have been extraordinarily helpful and kind. The Bonham Carter Trustee and Christopher Osborn were kind enough to grant me permission to quote copyright work of Margot Asquith. Others to whom I am grateful are the Earl and Countess of Oxford and Asquith for showing me material relating to Raymond Asquith and Frances, Lady Horner; Lady Glenconner; Philip Hoare for answering last-minute, anxious requests; and Melissa Wyndham and Suzanne Lobel for their enthusiasm for the project.

Certain people have helped this book immeasurably along its way. Philippa Brewster, Dan Jones and Hugo Vickers have all been the most sympathetic and helpful of ears in various times of crisis. Juggling writing with my other career as a barrister has been possible only thanks to the support of those at Essex Court Chambers, in particular my clerks David Grief and Jack Wood; and my erstwhile pupil supervisor Nathan Pillow. To all my friends: especially Will Gresford, who encouraged me to take on the project and whose connections set me on the way; Laura Hamm, my wingman in every coffee shop in New York; Lauren Aguilar, who lived with the book for two months across Sri Lanka; Ollie Marre, Joanna Buckley and Henry Day, my life-lines through law school; Lucy Davis; Maggie Asquith; Phoebe Barran; and Charlotte Evans, whose support has been unfailing since we were eighteen years old. To my godparents David and Angela Neuberger and Alex Gordon Shute; Jonny and Gabrielle Levy for their immediate, overwhelming support in the darkest of times. To all those who have lived with me and my boxes of books (in chronological order): Sarah O’Reilly, Sophie Elmhirst, Raya al Bader, Patrick Hennessey, Viva van Loock, Becca Ratcliffe and Nicky Sayers: thanks for listening to me bang on and I’m sorry about the mess. To Mark Lobel, who has now so gracefully taken on their mantle – thank you.

To list my myriad, ever-expanding family requires a deep breath, so here goes: my father Simon Renton, stepmother Rachel Smith and sister Izzy Renton; my grandmother Lavinia Hankinson; my stepfather Derek J. Content; Judy Englender; my sister Philippa Content and her clan, Chris, Arlo and Nina Winterbourne; my South African family, Jonathan, Gail, Kate, Nicky and Matty Schrire; Toby Colegate-Stone, the most patient and tolerant of brothers-in-law; and Imi and Mabel, the next generation of (head)strong women. Thank you all beyond measure.

Finally, I come to the hardest, and the easiest, thanks of all. To my brilliant, bold and beloved mother Amanda Content, who died in October 2009, as I was halfway through this book, and my sister Julia Colegate-Stone, who has helped me every step of the way before and since. I could not have begun to understand the ties that bound the Wyndham women together without my own experience to draw on. To my mother and my sister, this is for, and because of, you.

Claudia Renton

Lincoln’s Inn Fields

December 2013

Claudia Renton took a First at Oxford and was awarded the Gibbs Book Prize for Modern History. Now a practising barrister, she was previously an actress, appearing with the Royal Shakespeare Company and at the National theatre. She is co-author of
Heroes
with Simon Sebag Montefiore and was identified as one of the
Guardian’
s ‘new history girls’ and
Vogue’
s ‘Bright Stars’ of the next decade. She lives in London.

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First published in Great Britain by William Collins in 2014

Copyright © Claudia Renton 2014

Claudia Renton asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

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Cover:
The Wyndham Sisters: Lady Elcho, Mrs Adeane, and Mrs Tennant,
1899 (oil on canvas) by John Singer Sargent (1856–1925) © Francis G. Mayer/Corbis

Cover design by Anna Morrison

Source ISBN: 9780007544899

Ebook Edition © January 2014 ISBN: 9780007544905

Version: 2014-01-02

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