Their Noble Lordships: Class and Power in Modern Britain

....which I read in the 1980s. Even today I am constantly remembering facts about Parliament, the peerage, the monarchy and many other particularities for which this book has been my education. I disagree with the reviewer who found parts dull. The entire book fascinated me and remains, despite the passage of time, a principle guide and manual to the interworkings of class and government in modern Britain.

It's sometimes difficult for Americans to understand how the titled class in Great Britain manages to hang on and on, in what is supposed to be a democracy. In fact, under various Labour governments, Britain has been far more radically socialist than the United States -- but the dukes and earls and barons have always survived. Is it just the British love of tradition? Probably not. In fact, Winchester makes a very good argument, well supported by charts and tables, that class is still alive and well in the U.K. and that the upper class still controls the nation's land to a startling degree. A number of inquiries, even by the government, over the past century have been unable to nail down just how much land each peer controls, but the author estimates the total at something like four million acres -- not much to a large Texas rancher, perhaps, but that constitutes about one-third of all the land area of Britain. And it's in the hands of fewer than 1,500 families.This is not something British aristocrats really want publicized and, in fact, they go to some lengths to at least obfuscate it. Winchester actually had finished this book in 1978, but his publishers came under assault by a number of titled persons who figured in it. The legal system in Britain pretty much allows individuals who are the subjects of books, no matter how much in the public eye they may be, to suppress such works before publication. It was only with the assistance of a few sympathetic specialist lawyers - especially Sir Iain Moncreiffe of that Ilk, the foremost authority on peerage lore in Britain -- that his work finally saw the light of day.But this lively volume is far from being a dry socioeconomic study! Winchester went and visited as many dukes and earls as would talk to him (some did), as well as chatting up a broad sampling of the barons who constitute the lower rungs of the aristocracy. Some of these, such as the Duke of Devonshire and Baron Mowbray, he seems to approve of, more or less. In other cases, he lets the man's personality and opinions speak for themselves. And it's not a cliché that hunting, fishing, dining, and collecting account for the majority of interests of a great many of the titled. Winchester also describes at length the qualitative differences among the five ranks of the peerage: The special place of the dukes, who are far, far higher on the ladder than even the marquesses next below them; the fact that retiring prime ministers have traditionally been created viscounts; the peculiar inferiority complex of many among the ranks of the barons.There are also some curious effects that follow enoblement."Those who carry a title as a consequence of their birth are not in one single case as distinguished in any field as was the first holder of the title; in every single case they are either as comfortably settled as was the first holder or are considerably more settled than was that first holder. . . . In short, the elevation to the peerage has brought t

A must read for anyone wondering what English nobility is like and how it exists in modern society. No matter your opinions on nobility, you will enjoy the concise, understandable, explanations of the peerage and the sometimes hilarious anectodes about life as a peer and those who come in contact with them.There is plenty of descriptive information about peerage as well as educational data. Funnier and more enlightening than a read through an excyclopedia article, this book will give you a personal look into the lives of the peers and acquaint you with the class system still in place in the U.K.At some points rather heavily written, the burdensom prose is punctuated with very comedic stories of the peers and their interaction with modern soceity.For a funny, accurate and fairly objective consideration of the whole concept of English nobility, read "Their Noble Lordships." If nothing else, you will have a good time and know how to properly address a Duke or Baron should you ever meet one.