Charmed Life

If ever a man lived the 'Downton Abbey' ideal life of the rich and glamorous, that man was Philip Sassoon, a man with beautiful houses and luxury estates, private planes, paintings and antiques, with all the world his for the asking price. He was also something of an outsider - permanently single, p......more

This is a fascinating biography of a man who was a fabulously wealthy, unimaginably kind, talented mystery. He came from a family of wealthy Jewish traders, including the Rothschilds, yet was educated and raised as a proper Englishman. His love of art and all things aesthetic influenced much of what......more

More politics than personality. No psychological insight. Made an interesting person rather boring. The footnotes were annoyingly simple and, in at least one case, incorrect. There were no illustrations in my paperback copy, though, frustratingly, there was a list of them! Maddening! Overall - disap......more

The problem with Philip Sassoon is that everything makes him interesting to us, his life as a gay man, was after his death, comprehensively destroyed. All we are left with is whispers. But the reality is that he was an immensely rich member of the immensely rich Sassoon family who went into politics......more

This was a very disappointing read. While we get a lot of politics and learn about Sassoon's fabulous houses we learn nothing about Sassoon the man. Perhaps the fact that this book was written by a politician explains why it is heavy on the political side of Sassoon's life.Having gotten to the end o......more