The Langhorne Sisters by James Fox

Lizzie, the eldest, was trapped in post-Civil War Richmond. Irene was the flirtatious and golden Southern belle. Nancy, an unpredictable, elemental force, conquered Edwardian society in England and was the first woman to sit in Parliament at Westminster. Phyllis, private, romantic, melancholy, was Nancy’s confidante and the only person she loved all through her life. Nora, the youngest, was extravagant, feckless and promiscuous, her life punctuated with seductions and boltings. Their fascination with each other and the lost paradise of their childhood home, Mirador, were parts of the Langhorne myth that the young James Fox grew up with. Placing his great-aunt Nancy and grandmother Phyllis at its heart, The Langhorne Sisters reaches far beyond the airbrushed family images. Told in their own intimate voices selected from thousands of letters and journals, The Langhorne Sisters charts the attempts of two extraordinary women to transform and recreate themselves, and the chain of events that would have such a destructive effect on their family lives and happiness.