A private royal discussion intended to settle the future of Prince Harry’s connection to family matters turned into an open confrontation when Sophie, the Duchess of Edinburgh, revealed a plan that Harry had hoped to keep undisclosed. The meeting, called by King Charles III, included Prince William, Prince Harry, and Sophie. The issue at hand … Read more
Rita Hayworth, Hollywood’s great love goddess, ended her life far from the glittering screens that had made her a legend. For nearly two decades before her death on May 14, 1987, she had vanished from public view, cared for by her daughter Princess Yasmin Aga Khan after being declared unable to look after herself in … Read more
On the morning of July 13, 1966, Willie Maro walked into the Corner Kitchen, a small restaurant on Atwells Avenue in Providence, Rhode Island. It was a routine stop, one he made most mornings on Federal Hill. A man walked in behind him, carrying a gun. He ordered the owner and the customers to lie … Read more
On the evening of October 12, 1957, Ellsworth “Bumpy” Johnson was at home in his Harlem apartment, reading poetry in a burgundy silk robe. His wife, Mayme, was preparing to go out to dinner with two friends. She wore a cream-colored dress and the pearl earrings Bumpy had bought her for their tenth anniversary. Before … Read more
Rose Kennedy kept index cards on each of her nine children. Weights, dental dates, diseases, vaccinations, all filed like personnel records. The cards were real, preserved today in her personal papers at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library in Boston. She started the system with two babies and kept it running with nine, and she … Read more
Nous étions ce que tout le monde appelait le couple parfait. Moi, trente-deux ans, développeur logiciel, et Anna, trente et un ans, dans le marketing. Amoureux depuis l’université, mariés depuis trois ans, une belle maison en banlieue avec la clôture blanche, deux chiens recueillis, Max et Bella, et tout le rêve millénial bien rangé. On … Read more
Het zou een leuk weekend moeten worden. Dat vertelde Derek me tenminste. Hij zei dat zijn broers, Ron en Kyle, een korte roadtrip wilden maken, gewoon voor de lol, om wat te binden. Ik aarzelde. Zijn broers mochten me nooit. Ze maakten altijd kleine grapjes over me, fluisterden dingen wanneer ze dachten dat ik het … Read more
Rosehall House stands in a wooded glen in Sutherland, in the far north of Scotland. It is a pale Georgian building, shuttered and slowly rotting, with hand-blocked French wallpaper still hanging on its walls. Nobody has lived in it for more than 60 years. The woman who chose that wallpaper was Gabrielle Chanel. The man … Read more
In 1741, an 11-year-old boy in the village of Burslem contracted smallpox. The disease ravaged his right knee, leaving the joint damaged beyond repair. In a trade that demanded two strong legs to work the treadle of a potter’s wheel, this was a catastrophe. A disabled potter had no future. Josiah Wedgwood was the youngest … Read more
On the morning of May 3, 1945, the Bavarian town of Cham was quiet. The air smelled of pine and wet earth. A column of jeeps and half-tracks from Patton’s Third Army rolled through the cobblestone streets, past whitewashed houses flying white bedsheets from their windows—the universal sign of surrender. The American soldiers were exhausted. … Read more