Description
An earl who became a socialist — and the daughter who tells his story. Jack Hastings, 16th Earl of Huntingdon (1901–1990), did everything an aristocratic heir was not supposed to do. He trained as a painter, assisted the great Mexican muralist Diego Rivera, and fell for bohemian Paris and Tahiti, where he lived for years — then scandalized his class by embracing socialism and sitting with Labour in the House of Lords after succeeding his father in 1939.
Acclaimed biographer Selina Hastings turns to her most irresistible subject: her own father. The Red Earl is intimate without being indulgent — a daughter’s clear-eyed portrait of charm, conviction, and contradiction, set against the long decline of the English aristocracy. She neither excuses his failures nor diminishes his courage.
Wonderful on art, politics, and twentieth-century England. One of the most enjoyable — and most honest — aristocratic biographies ever written.
A biography of the aristocratic rebel who became a socialist icon
In The Red Earl, acclaimed biographer Selina Hastings turns to an irresistible subject: her own father, Jack Hastings, 16th Earl of Huntingdon (1901–1990). Born into one of England’s oldest noble families, Jack did everything an aristocratic heir was not supposed to do. He trained as a painter, assisted the great Mexican muralist Diego Rivera, and fell in love with bohemian Paris and Tahiti, where he lived for years with his first wife, Cristina Casati. His politics proved even more scandalous to his class: he embraced socialism, sat with Labour in the House of Lords after succeeding his father in 1939, and kept his left-wing convictions for the rest of his long life.
Drawing on family letters, diaries, and her own complicated memories, Hastings paints an honest, affectionate portrait of a man who was both brilliant and deeply flawed — a gifted artist, a restless traveller, a devoted teacher, and a distant, difficult father. Was Jack Hastings a genuine rebel or simply an aristocrat playing at revolution? The Red Earl refuses easy answers, offering instead a vivid, humane account of a life lived against the grain. An absorbing read for anyone drawn to twentieth-century British history, art, and the delicious contradictions of the English upper class.
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