Bringing the House Down. A Family Memoir by David Profumo

I bought this after we watched the excellent series, The Trial of Christine Keeler. David Profumo certainly provides the simplest explanation of this famous review that I've read, and he is also fairly sympathetic to Christine Keeler. However, this wasn't the only reason that I bought the book - I also wanted to read more about Valerie Hobson, the author's beautiful actress mother.

This couple both had glittering careers before John Profumo's spectacular downfall. Valerie Hobson wowed audiences in London as Anna in The King and I but she gave up her career to marry the handsome and charming Profumo who had a distinguished war record, and  became British Secretary of State for War. The two led the high life before the scandal, and Valerie enjoyed dressing in beautiful clothes, entertaining the rich and famous and generally playing the supportive political wife and hostess. Life after the 'fall' was very different, seeing the couple ostrasized by many of their friends, receiving nasty letters, packing David off to boarding school, and attempting to retreat to the country for a time. Profumo eventually found fulfillment in working for Toynbee Hall, an East End charity.

This captivating biography provides an insight into this couple, who both showed great inner strength. Both were incredibly strong characters, so it was a pity that Profumo let himself be brought down by a fatal attraction to beautiful women. It is written in a somewhat old-fashioned but elegaic style, sprinkled with Latin and French quotations and long words, but it is certainly an intimate look at a family caught up in a scandal that rocked the nation, and very much worth reading.

I read this for Rose City Reader's TBR 23 for '23 Book Challenge.