Daughter of Empire

BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY: HISTORICAL, POLITICAL & MILITARY. Few families can boast of not one but two saints among their ancestors, not to mention a great aunt who was the last tsarina of Russia, a father admired by Grace Kelly, and a grandmother who was not only a princess but could also argue the finer points of naval law. As the younger daughter of Lord and Lady Mountbatten, Pamela Hicks's childhood was an extraordinary whirlwind of British aristocracy, English eccentricity, Hollywood glamour, and political education. The house was always full of guests like Sir Winston Churchill, Noel Coward, Douglas Fairbanks, and the Duchess of Windsor. During World War II she was sent to live on Fifth Avenue in New York City with Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt. She served as a bridesmaid in Princess Elizabeth's wedding to Prince Phillip. Vivid and engaging, well paced and superbly detailed, this witty, intimate memoir is an enchanting lens through which to view the early part of the twentieth century.