Margaret, Duchess of Argyll's life was one of complexity and controversy. Born Ethel Margaret Whigham, the only child of a Scottish self-made millionaire and a beautiful high-society woman, her childhood was rich and splendid - but empty. She was a daddy's girl with an absent father, living with a jealous mother who sought to remind Margaret of her every shortcoming. As she grew up, her name was a byword for class and beauty; she was the debutante of her coming-out year, and her marriage to Charles Sweeny literally stopped traffic. But it was not to last: Margaret needed more. What followed was a story of tragedy, scandal and heartbreak as Margaret swung from lover to lover, society to society. This culminated in her notorious divorce case of 1963, where her soon-to-be-ex-husband produced his pie`ce de résistance: a Polaroid of her in a compromising position with two other men. In The Grit in the Pearl, Lyndsy Spence takes a look at a woman who was ahead of her time. Using previously unpublished sources and personal transcripts, this is the story of a fragile woman who was to come up against the very highest echelons of English high society - and lose.

Lyndsy Spence is a celebrated historian who specialises in daring aristocratic women. She is a book reviewer for The Lady and the founder of The Mitford Society, an online community dedicated to researching the Mitford sisters. Her previous books for The History Press include The Mistress of Mayfair: Men, Money and the Marriage of Doris Delevingne (2018) and Mrs Guinness: The Rise and Fall of Diana Mitford, the Thirties Socialite (2017).

MARGARET, DUCHESS OF ARGYLL was an international celebrity in her youth, adored and observed by millions. But in 1963 the 11th Duke of Argyll shocked the country when he alleged that his adulterous wife had slept with over eighty men behind his back. As his evidence, he produced a set of sexually explicit Polaroid photographs and explosive love letters, helping to win his divorce and affecting Margaret's life forever. On the verge of financial destitution, she fell from grace and was abandoned by most of her friends prior to her death in a nursing home in Pimlico in 1993. In this meticulously researched biography Lyndsy Spence tells a tragic story of the life and downfall of this fascinatingly complex woman, and shows how she fell victim to a cruel husband, harsh social mores and an unforgiving class.