Bronwen Astor: Her Life and Times

‘The life story of Bronwen Astor shows that the hurt of Profumo goes very deep, all the more so because the affair exposed personal vulnerabilities that money, class and social status were supposed to conceal’ Robert McCrum: Observer

‘illuminates an extraordinary woman and an extraordinary life’ John Graham: Tatler

‘More intimate in tone than most such works are’ Anthony Howard: Sunday Times

‘This discerning study is no mere padding for a description of the most sensational political scandal of modern times. Every facet of the life of Lady Astor is examined with exemplary skill and sensitive shrewdness.’
Gerard Noel in the Catholic Herald

The story of Bronwen Pugh, the most famous model of her generation, who in 1960 married Lord Astor and became chatelaine of the equally famous Cliveden. Three years later she was embroiled in the Profumo affair, the Sixties sex and spying scandal that hastened her husband’s death. With unprecedented access to her private papers, it tells of the religious faith that remained the bedrock of Astor’s life until her death in 2018.

Published in London by HarperCollins in May 2000. ISBN: UK hardback 0-00-255839-4; UK paperback 0-00-638859-0 Available now only as an e-book.

“Well-written, conscientious and thorough…shows a good sense of place and period, convincingly recreating the post-war fashion world, the social scene at Cliveden, the London of the 1950s and 1960s, as well as the bickering and barminess of Bronwen’s eccentric Christian communities”

– Selina Hastings: Times Literary Supplement

Available to Purchase Here

Bronwen Astor: Her Life and Times

“Well-written, conscientious and thorough…shows a good sense of place and period, convincingly recreating the post-war fashion world, the social scene at Cliveden, the London of the 1950s and 1960s, as well as the bickering and barminess of Bronwen’s eccentric Christian communities”