We are thrilled to welcome Sonia Purnell to the Authors’ Club to talk about her book, Kingmaker: Pamela Churchill Harriman’s astonishing life of seduction, power & intrigue (Virago).

An electrifying re-examination of one of the twentieth century’s greatest unsung power players, from the bestselling author of A Woman of No Importance.

‘Supremely enjoyable … With a historian’s eye for rigour, a journalist’s for detail and a storyteller’s for drama’ Financial Times

When 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. 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 over five decades and two continents, influencing figures like the Kennedys, Nelson Mandela, Truman Capote, Gianni Agnelli, Kay Graham, Gloria Steinem and Frank Sinatra.

Kingmaker is written with the novelistic richness and investigative rigour that only Purnell could bring to this story full of sex, power, yachts, palaces and fabulous clothes.

‘Riveting and revelatory’ The New Yorker

Sonia Purnell is a prize-winning and bestselling biographer. Purnell is interested in setting the record straight on twentieth-century women whose lives have been overlooked, misrepresented or misunderstood by history, works that led to her recently being described as ‘one of the most accomplished biographers of our time’ (Liza Mundy). A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of Virginia Hall, WWII’s Most Dangerous Spy, won the 2020 Plutarch Award for Best Biography and was a New York Times bestseller. First Lady: The Life and Wars of Clementine Churchill was a book of the year in the Daily Telegraph and  Independent, and was shortlisted for the Plutarch Award for Best Biography. Just Boris: A Tale of Blond Ambition, was longlisted for the Orwell Prize.

To book please contact the booking office at bookings@nlc.org.uk or call 020 7968 0912.

The two-course lunch, followed by coffee, costs £39. It’s in the Lady Violet Room and we start with drinks at 12:30pm.  Please book early and inform the club of any dietary requirements.