Nancy: The Story of Lady Astor
Fort does justice to the remarkable life of Nancy, Lady Astor, the first woman to be elected as a Member of Parliament. An American divorcée, Nancy Langhorne Shaw burst upon the staid Edwardian scene, parlaying her beauty, wit, and unabashed boldness into one of the most brilliant marriages of the 1906 London season. Capturing both the heart and mind of the immensely wealthy Waldorf Astor, she wowed her adopted country as a hostess, a patroness of the arts, and, eventually, as a politician. Standing for Parliament in 1919, after her MP husband was elevated to the peerage, she remained in the House of Commons for 25 years, reluctantly retiring only when it became sadly evident that this gender-smashing legislator had finally let time and relevant politics pass her by. Though rushing a bit through her postpolitical years, Fort spends ample time introducing his subject, thoroughly grounding her in both late nineteenth-century American history and early twentieth-century British society and politics. --Margaret Flanagan