Those Wild Wyndhams: Three Sisters at the Heart of Power

The three dazzlingly beautiful, wildly rich Wyndham sisters led complex, idiosyncratic lives at the center of cultural and political life in late-Victorian and Edwardian Britain.

The Wyndham sisters--Mary, Madeline, and Pamela--were confidantes to British prime ministers, poets, writers, and artists, their lives entwined with the most celebrated and scandalous figures of the day, from Oscar Wilde to Henry James. They were the lovers and wives of great and prominent men and lived in a world of luxurious excess, raised with a fierce belief that their family was exceptional. They avoided the norm at all costs and led the way to a blending of aristocracy and art. Their group came to be called The Souls, whose members from 1885 to the 1920s included the most distinguished politicians, artists, and thinkers of their time. In Those Wild Wyndhams, Claudia Renton gives us a dazzling portrait of one of England's grandest families, capturing the tragedy that befell them as the privilege and bliss of the Victorian age gave way to the Edwardian era, the Great War, and the passing of an opulent world.