HIGH SOCIETY
The bygone days of sprawling estates and grand society dames fly high with this trio of memoirs and one heiress biography. Lady Pamela Hicks (née Mountbatten) recalls life at the heart of the British aristocracy – from friendship with Gandhi to years as Queen Elizabeth’s lady-in-waiting – in the fascinating, fizzy Daughter of Empire. Eileen Rockefeller grapples with the weight that comes with her family’s storied legacy in Being a Rockefeller, Becoming Myself, and Theodora Getty Gaston, who met the oilman J. Paul Getty in 1935 during a stint as a cabaret singer, chronicles their relationship in Alone Together. Finally, Empty Mansions looks back at Huguette Clark, a reclusive mining heiress who chose to spend 20 years in a New York City hospital as her three stately homes stood silent.