“An extraordinary life and her rise through politics in both Britain and USA…all within the shadows. Her life’s work cannot be simply put in a box but author Sonia Purnell comes the closest of all biographies to give us a thorough, deserving record of the ‘woman in the shadows’…”
Pamela Digby Churchill Hayward Harriman sums up the extraordinary life of a British woman and her rise through politics all within the shadows. An enigma, a curious back-room strategist with influence that we would find unfathomable. Yet Pamela lived a life that never quite fitted into the mold and shape expected of conventional society with grit, strength and determination. What drove her? What led her through some of the most monumental geopolitical changes of a century?
Through World Ward Two service with her Father-In-Law Sir Winston Churchill, to the French Riviera and onto the halls of power in Washington and New York – Pamela never served as a politician yet wielded influence that birthed political careers, Presidents and solutions to trigger-point political crises.
It’s only once a life has been lived and someone like author Sonia Purnell pieces together the fragments that we can see just what Pamela hid from the public eye. Judged and scorned, rightly or wrongly, Sonia Purnell forms a more complete picture of Pamela’s sharp mind and strategy that sadly, had she been a man, would have had the accolades and respect due to her. In an age where the wives of powerful men were dismissed, Pamela moved, shook and diplomatically pushed the issues that mattered.
What underpinned Pamela’s values and view of the world? She cannot simply be ‘put in a box’, that is how extraordinary and fascinating her life’s work is and Sonia Purnell comes the closest out of all the biographies to give us a thorough deserving record of the ‘woman in the shadows’ that was Pamela.
If you’re a fan of Astor by Anderson Cooper and Katherine Howe or Caroline Moorehead’s historical memoirs then you’ll be intrigued by Kingmaker.
Little Brown @Hachette Publishers
ISBN 9780349014739