The Lost Imperialist: Lord Dufferin, Memory And Mythmaking In An Age
Of Celebrity

Product Description

Frederick Hamiton-Temple-Blackwood, 1st Marquess of Dufferin & Ava, enjoyed a glittering career which few could equal. As Viceroy of India & Governor-General of Canada, he held the two most exalted positions available under the Crown, but prior to this his achievements as a British ambassador included restoring order to sectarian conflict in Syria, helping to keep Canada British, paving the way for the annexation of Egypt & preventing war from breaking out on India`s North-West Frontier. Dufferin was much more than a diplomat & politician, however: he was a leading Irish landlord, an adventurer & a travel writer whose Letters from High Latitudes proved a publishing sensation. He also became a celebrity of the time, & in his attempts to sustain his reputation he became trapped by his own inventions, thereafter living his public life in fear of exposure. Ingenuity, ability & charm usually saved the day, yet in the end catastrophe struck in the form of the greatest City scandal for forty years & the death of his heir in the Boer War. With unique access to the family archive at Clandeboye, Andrew Gailey presents a full biography of the figure once referred to as the `most popular man in Europe`.