A vivid and moving portrait of the inimitable Lily Budge, who
overcame poverty and class to become the 13th Countess of Galloway,
and one of Scotland's most colourful eccentrics. In 1916, Lily
Miller was born into a working class family in Duns, in the Borders
region of Scotland. She became determined to escape, both from the
small town gossip and from her terrifying mother, who thought Lily
was born only to serve. Lily could not have predicted that her
flight would eventually lead her to the heart of the Scottish
establishment. Her spirited, eccentric and at times
self-destructive nature shaped every decision she made, and her
life became increasingly rackety. In 1975, living in Edinburgh as a
self-styled dealer in porcelain dolls, with two failed marriages
and four sons (one adopted) to her name, not to mention posts as a
housekeeper and a boarding house owner, she met Randolph Stewart,
the future 13th Earl of Galloway. On the surface, Randolph's
aristocratic childhood could not have seemed more different. His
was a world of great privilege, emotional restraint and
overwhelming expectation. man, lobotomised. Much of the rest of his
life had been spent hidden away, either in a mental institution or
with a religious order of monks. But a curious bond formed between
Lily and Randolph, and marriage followed, beginning a deep family
feud that was played out in newspaper headlines. Was such a union
doomed to failure? An Unlikely Countess is a masterpiece of
storytelling and biography, teeming with historical detail and
famous names. Louise Carpenter has brought to life not only two
extraordinary characters in Lily and Randolph, but also the worlds
in which they moved, with sensitivity, humour and expert
observation. Her affection for her subjects is matched by a wry
awareness of their idiosyncrasies, and the rich backdrop she paints
serves as a vibrant portrait of twentieth-century Scotland.
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