Anne de Courcy honoured with the Biographers’ Club Exceptional Contribution Prize

Picture credit: BookBrunch

We are delighted to announce that celebrated biographer Anne de Courcy is this year’s recipient of the Biographers’ Club Exceptional Contribution Prize, recognizing her exceptional career encompassing eleven books over the past four decades.

Anne was presented with the award at the Biographers’ Club Christmas Party on Monday (11 December 2023), held at Albany in Piccadilly, London. Club chairperson Jane Ridley remarked on Anne’s dedication to the craft across her many works, citing in particular de Courcy's ‘ground-breaking’ SNOWDON: THE BIOGRAPHY, as well as the support she has offered over the years to both aspiring and established biographers.

The Biographers’ Club was founded in 1997 to support, promote and connect literary biographers throughout the research and writing process and their careers. The Exceptional Contribution prize has been awarded by the Club annually since 2009, with Anne joining the ranks of honourees including Michael Holroyd, Selina Hastings, Claire Tomalin, Hermione Lee, and 2022 winner A.N. Wilson.

About Anne de Courcy

Anne de Courcy is a well-known writer, journalist and book reviewer. In the 1970s she was Woman’s Editor on the London Evening News until its demise in 1980, when she joined the Evening Standard as a columnist and feature-writer. In 1982 she joined the Daily Mail as a feature writer, with a special interest in historical subjects, leaving in 2003 to concentrate on books, on which she has talked widely both here and in the United States.

A critically-acclaimed and best-selling author, she believes that as well as telling the story of its subject’s life, a biography should depict the social history of the period, since so much of action and behaviour is governed not simply by obvious financial, social and physical conditions but also by underlying, often unspoken, contemporary attitudes, assumptions, standards and moral codes.

Anne sits on the committee of the Biographer’s Club, and was previously the chairperson of the group. Her recent biographies, all of which have been serialised, include THE VICEROY’S DAUGHTERS, DIANA MOSLEY, DEBS AT WAR and SNOWDON; THE BIOGRAPHY, written with the agreement and co-operation of the Earl of Snowdon. Based on Anne’s book, a Channel 4 documentary Snowdon and Margaret: Inside a Royal Marriage, was broadcast in June 2008.

THE FISHING FLEET: HUSBAND-HUNTING IN THE RAJ, was published in July 2012. Her book, MARGOT AT WAR published in November 2014, was shortlisted for the Paddy Power Political Book of the Year award. Her latest book is FIVE LOVE AFFAIRS AND A FRIENDSHIP (published in the US as MAGNIFICENT REBEL), a biography of Jazz Age icon Nancy Cunard.

Praise for Anne de Courcy

‘De Courcy paints a rich canvas.’ – The Sunday Times

‘Meticulously researched and sparklingly witty’ – Jane Shilling, Must Reads, Daily Mail

‘Anne de Courcy combines the perseverance of a social historian with the panache of the novelist’ – The Times

‘Intoxicating descriptions… meticulous detail’ – New York Times

‘She can make you laugh or break your heart, but she will never bore you.’ – Martin Rubin, The Washington Times

‘Anne de Courcy has a humorous tone, which I find very engaging, and she draws research from letters, memories and diaries.’ – Santa Montefiore, Good Housekeeping, ‘The Books That Changed My Life’

Visit Anne's website

ANNE DE COURCY’S NEW NANCY CUNARD BIOGRAPHY TO W&N and ST MARTIN’S PRESS

Isobel Dixon of Blake Friedmann has clinched two deals for acclaimed biographer Anne de Courcy’s latest work, FIVE LOVE AFFAIRS AND A FRIENDSHIP: Scenes from the Turbulent Life of Nancy Cunard. UK and BC rights excluding Canada have been sold to Alan Samson at Weidenfeld & Nicolson, and Charles Spicer has acquired US and Canadian rights for St Martin’s Press. The deals were finalised on the basis of a proposal and the biography will be published in 2022.

Nancy Cunard was the half-American daughter of Maud Burke of San Francisco, who married Sir Bache Cunard, grandson of the founder of the Cunard shipping line. Nancy was brought up in a world of extreme luxury but also emotional neglect. A high society heiress of great beauty and intelligence, she was also a poet and political activist who founded the Hours Press in France in 1928 and was the first to publish writers like Samuel Beckett and Laura Riding, in beautiful hand-printed editions. Anne de Courcy will look at this complex woman through the lens of five key relationships in her life – her love affairs with writers and artists like Ezra Pound, Aldous Huxley and jazz pianist Henry Crowder, and also the enduring friendship with her mother’s one-time lover George Moore.

Anne de Courcy is a celebrated biographer, with long experience as a journalist and book reviewer. She has won a wide readership through her closely researched and vividly evoked lives of women throughout history, from Margot Asquith, wife of the Prime Minister during WW1 in MARGOT AT WAR, to the Cote d'Azur elite in the 1930s and 1940s in her latest book, CHANEL’S RIVIERA. THE VICEROY’S DAUGHTERS, THE FISHING FLEET and THE HUSBAND HUNTERS are among her bestselling and acclaimed books, among several others.

De Courcy’s writing is consistently described as ‘riveting’, ‘irresistible’, ‘intoxicating’, ‘vivid’ and ‘moving’, while her meticulous eye for detail and skill at research from original sources has also won praise.

Visit Anne de Courcy’s website.

Praise for Anne de Courcy and CHANEL’S RIVIERA:
‘Anne de Courcy combines the perseverance of a social historian with the panache of the novelist’ — The Times

'Dishy and well-researched...this fluidly written history succeeds in capturing the era’s intoxicating mix of glitz and grit.' — Publishers Weekly

'Intoxicating descriptions… meticulous detail' — New York Times

'Tales of glamour, decadence and survival... De Courcy's book is entertaining... a peek, at once envious and satisfyingly censorious, at the lifestyles of the rich and famous.' — Washington Post

‘Cleverly researched, sparkling with diamonds and wickedly funny.’ — Jane Ridley, The Spectator

'Sparkling, anecdote-rich narrative' – The Times

AMERICAN GLAMOUR MEETS THE BRITISH ARISTOCRACY: ANNE DE COURCY’S THE HUSBAND HUNTERS OUT IN PAPERBACK

The paperback edition of Anne de Courcy’s insightful group biography THE HUSBAND HUNTERS is published today in paperback by Weidenfeld & Nicolson, following its release in hardback, ebook and audio in June 2017. Jane Ridley praised Anne’s exploration into the lives of the young American heiresses who married into the English aristocracy in The Spectator, as ‘cleverly researched, sparkling with diamonds and wickedly funny.’

US readers can expect hardback copies of the sparkling social history of the 'Dollar Princesses' in August.

Towards the end of the nineteenth century and for the first few years of the twentieth, a strange invasion took place in Britain. The citadel of power, privilege and breeding in which the titled, land-owning governing class had barricaded itself for so long was breached. The incomers were a group of young women who, fifty years earlier, would have been looked on as the alien denizens of another world - the New World, to be precise. From 1874 - the year that Jennie Jerome, the first known 'Dollar Princess', married Randolph Churchill - to 1905, dozens of young American heiresses married into the British peerage, bringing with them all the fabulous wealth, glamour and sophistication of the Gilded Age.

Anne de Courcy sets the stories of these young women and their families in the context of their times. Based on extensive first-hand research, drawing on diaries, memoirs and letters, this richly entertaining group biography reveals what they thought of their new lives in England - and what England thought of them.

Rights to Anne’s next project, CHANEL’S RIVIERA, have already been snapped up by Weidenfeld & Nicolson and St Martin’s Press. Exploring World War II’s impact on the glitz and glamour of the French Riviera, from the last golden fling of 1939 and the first Cannes Film Festival, which had to be suspended, to the first post-war festival of cinema, Anne de Courcy will tell another riveting tale, with its glossy motley crew, set against dark times. A fascinating cast includes Winston Churchill, the Windsors, Edith Wharton, Aldous Huxley, P.G. Wodehouse, Somerset Maugham, and of course Coco Chanel.

Anne de Courcy is a best-selling biographer, acclaimed for her first-hand research and engaging books, which not only tell the stories of her subjects’ lives, but depict the social history of the period. Her biographies include THE VICEROY’S DAUGHTERS, DIANA MOSLEY, DEBS AT WAR and SNOWDON. MARGOT AT WAR: LOVE AND BETRAYAL IN DOWNING STREET, 1912-1916 was shortlisted for the Paddy Power Political Book of the Year Award. THE FISHING FLEET spent many weeks on the Sunday Times bestseller list and has been optioned for film and TV, with rights to THE HUSBAND HUNTERS also under negotiation.

See more on Anne’s website here.

Praise for THE HUSBAND HUNTERS:

‘Anne de Courcy has a sharp instinct for absurdity and there is much of that in this entertaining book. De Courcy engagingly…takes a serious look at the differences between the largely matriarchal American upper-class society of the day, run by women, for women.’ —Anne Sebba, The Literary Review

Lively, shrewd and fresh as a gilded rose, de Courcy’s book is her best yet. I can’t wait to read it again.’ — Miranda Seymour, The Daily Telegraph

 ‘De Courcy charts these harbingers of the Gilded Age, their social mountaineering and the collateral damage that ensured with dexterous charm.’ — The Field

‘For all those who long for more Edith Wharton novels, Anne de Courcy’s THE HUSBAND HUNTERS is a worthy successor, especially as it is the true story of THE BUCCANEERS. Anne de Courcy’s thrilling prose, and fascinating diaries and letters of the period, means the story of the capitulation of British lords to 400 energetic American heiresses is impossible to put down.’ — Rebecca Fraser, author of THE MAYFLOWER

‘A sparkling and richly entertaining account of an intriguing and unusual culture clash.’ — The Mail on Sunday

The arrival of THE HUSBAND HUNTERS in the UK, as De Courcy, Weidenfeld & St Martins set their sights on CHANEL’S RIVIERA

On 1 June Weidenfeld & Nicolson publish the UK edition of THE HUSBAND HUNTERS: Social Climbing in London & New York, Anne de Courcy’s sparkling social history of the 'Dollar Princesses' – the young American heiresses who married into the English aristocracy, rescuing crumbling castles and failing estates and gaining titles in return. UK readers can buy W&N’s beautiful hardback and download the audiobook, read by Clare Corbett.

St Martins Press will publish THE HUSBAND HUNTERS in the US in 2018. Charlie Spicer of St Martins and Alan Samson of Weidenfeld have also snapped up Anne’s new project CHANEL’S RIVIERA, for publication in 2020.

British readers are in for another De Courcy treat with THE HUSBAND HUNTERS as she tells how from 1874 – the year that Jennie Jerome, the first known 'Dollar Princess', married Randolph Churchill – to 1905, dozens of young American heiresses married into the British peerage, bringing with them all the fabulous wealth, glamour and sophistication of the Gilded Age. Anne de Courcy sets the stories of these young women and their families in the context of their times and vividly portrays a world where buying a swift route up the social ladder was the order of the day. Based on extensive first-hand research, drawing on diaries, memoirs and letters, this is a richly entertaining and revealing group biography.

CHANEL’S RIVIERA promises to be an equally enthralling take on stormy seasons on the French Riviera, with all the glamour and glitz of the high life interrupted by the outbreak of World War II. From the last golden fling of 1939 and the first Cannes Film Festival, which had to be suspended, to the first post-war festival of cinema, Anne de Courcy will tell another riveting tale, with its glossy motley crew, set against dark times. A fascinating cast includes Winston Churchill, the Windsors, Edith Wharton, Aldous Huxley, P.G. Wodehouse, Somerset Maugham, and of course Coco Chanel.

Anne de Courcy is a best-selling biographer, acclaimed for her first-hand research and engaging books, which not only tell the stories of her subjects’ lives, but depict the social history of the period. Her biographies include THE VICEROY’S DAUGHTERS, DIANA MOSLEY, DEBS AT WAR and SNOWDON. MARGOT AT WAR: LOVE AND BETRAYAL IN DOWNING STREET, 1912-1916 was shortlisted for the Paddy Power Political Book of the Year Award. THE FISHING FLEET spent many weeks on the Sunday Times bestseller list and has been optioned for film and TV, with rights to THE HUSBAND HUNTERS also under negotiation.

See more on Anne’s website here.

Praise for Anne de Courcy:

‘Anne de Courcy combines the perseverance of a social historian with the panache of the novelist’ – The Times

‘De Courcy paints a rich canvas.’ – The Sunday Times

‘De Courcy tells her story with perspicacity and aplomb.’ – The Field

‘Compulsively readable and immaculately researched, popular social history at its very best.’ – The Mail on Sunday

‘A world of glittering house parties, aristocratic immorality and political intrigue in a narrative that reads like a racy novel.’ – Sunday Times