"A deliciously told group biography of the young, rich, American heiresses who married impoverished, British gentry at the turn of the twentieth century - the real women who inspired Downton Abbey. 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"--. Provided by publisher.

"First published in Great Britain by Weidenfeld & Nicolson, an imprint of The Orion Publishing Group Ltd, an Hachette UK company"--Title page verso. Includes bibliographical references (pages 286-291) and index.

Where they came from -- The 'buccaneers' -- Jennie -- The first duke captured -- Living in the country -- Mrs Paran Stevens -- Alva -- Newport -- The 'Marrying Wilsons' -- The call of Europe -- Virginia -- Maud -- Royal connections -- The Bradley-Martins -- Fitting in - or not -- Tennie Claflin : the odd one out -- The river of gold -- It was all too much.