Kingmaker : Pamela Churchill Harriman’s astonishing life of seduction, intrigue and power

An electrifying re-examination of one of the twentieth century’s greatest unsung power players, from the bestselling author of A WOMAN OF NO IMPORTANCEA 2024 BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR IN THE TELEGRAPH, SPECTATOR and TLS’Supremely enjoyable … With a historian’s eye for rigour, a journalist’s for detail and a storyteller’s for drama’ FINANCIAL TIMES’A page turner that matches her subject in verve and ambition … Tremendous’ IRISH EXAMINER’A wonderfully racy romp [and] a gripping biography of a brave, ambitious woman’ DAILY MAIL’An incredible story, beautifully told, of a remarkable woman whose political influence spanned Churchill to Clinton.

Quite a woman, quite a read’ ALASTAIR CAMPBELL’Superb and fascinating. I can’t recommend it more’ LADY ANNE GLENCONNER, bestselling author of Lady in WaitingWhen Pamela Churchill Harriman died in 1997, the obituaries that followed were scathing – and often downright sexist. Written off as a social climber, her glamorous social life and infamous erotic adventures overshadowed her true legacy.

Much of what she did behind the scenes to shape the twentieth century, on both sides of the Atlantic, remained invisible. That is, until now: with a wealth of fresh research, Sonia Purnell unveils for the first time the full, spectacular story of how Harriman left an indelible mark on the world today. There is practically no-one in twentieth-century politics, culture and fashion whose lives she did not touch.

Her influence began at age twenty, when her father-in-law, Winston Churchill, engaged her as a “secret weapon” during World War II, wining, dining and seducing Americans over to the British cause against Hitler. It continued later in the US, where she hand-picked Bill Clinton from obscurity and vaulted him to the presidency. It extended further, over five decades and two continents, influencing figures like the Kennedys, Nelson Mandela, Truman Capote, Gianni Agnelli, Kay Graham, Gloria Steinem and Frank Sinatra.

Written with the novelistic richness and investigative rigour that only Sonia Purnell could bring to this story full of sex, power, yachts, palaces and fabulous clothes, Kingmaker sets out Harriman’s rightful place at the heart of recent history. ****’Rigorous but rollicking’ NEW YORK TIMES’Fascinating and revelatory, written with great aplomb, insight and shrewd analysis. A triumph’ WILLIAM BOYD’As compelling as its subject’ TLS’ Riveting and revelatory’ THE NEW YORKER’An alluring new biography’ THE ECONOMIST’Purnell’s research is impeccable’ SPECTATOR’Kingmaker is on to something important.

Successful women are judged differently than men’ AMANDA FOREMAN, GUARDIAN’Sympathetic, well-researched, busily peopled’ OBSERVER BOOK OF THE DAY’Vivid’ NEW STATESMAN