Product Description

David Profumo was just seven when his father, who had been Secretary of State for War, resigned from the Macmillan government. Despite the furore and humiliation that followed, his parents famously stayed together – and now, forty years on, their son has written this long-awaited account of their family life before, during and after the sensational events of 1963.

Drawing on diaries, letters and other memorabilia never before made public, Bringing The House Down describes their background and careers before they met. After an apprenticeship in Hollywood during her teenage years, the beautiful Valerie Hobson went on to star in numerous British films before her stage triumph in ‘The King and I’; John Profumo had been the youngest MP during the Second World War, became a Brigadier at the age of thirty, and was rapidly rising through the ranks of the Conservative party. This is the story of their complicated courtship and volatile marriage, the destruction of their glamorous lifestyle and their endurance of the aftermath.

By turns intimate, caustic and poignant, their only child’s personal memoir of their three lives together not only puts flesh on the bones of the old family skeleton but also offers a remarkable portrait of a love affair that somehow survived in a world turned upside down.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #259557 in Books
• Published on: 2007-07-12
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 304 pages

Review

'[Profumo] has written an elegantly sorrowful account of his family’s great shame'

(Peter McKay, Evening Standard )

‘Painful to write, moving to read, this beautifully crafted account will not be the final word on the Profumo affair, but shows that, behind its continuing fascination as the arch political scandal lies a long trail of human misery’

 

(Independent on Sunday )

‘Elegiac and evocative volume’ Sunday Telegraph / Seven

(Sunday Telegraph / Seven )

‘It certainly has all the excitement, neurosis and edginess of a book that needed to be written… gritty, heartfelt and honest…it is a real book, by a real writer, about real people’

(Mail on Sunday (Book of the Week review by Craig Brown, 5 out of 5 stars) )

‘An intimate, perky, donnishly literate memoir... It is a rather infectious read, elegantly written, often funny, sometimes caustic’

(Times )

‘Gentle, touching, wry’

(Guardian )

‘Profumo’s book… restores a context to a story that has so long had a life of its own. And it offers a measured and affecting insight into what it was like to be a seven-year-old in the eye of the original tabloid storm’ 

(Observer )

‘A fascinating, gripping tale’

(Daily Express )

‘David Profumo is an outstandingly witty, stylish and original writer. In this bracingly honest and frequently sparkling family memoir, he has really excelled himself. Indeed, I would not hesitate to describe Bringing the House Down as a masterpiece’

(Hugh Massingberd, Country Life )

‘Brilliant, intimate radio’

(New Statesman, on Radio 4 Book of the Week )

‘His family memoir is clear-eyed, beautifully written, often painful to read, and sometimes very funny indeed’

(Stephen Robinson, Daily Telegraph )

‘Intensely observant and acutely perceptive ... hugely literate and sophisticated’

(Peregrine Worsthorne, Spectator )

‘Searingly honest… David Profumo has written a revelatory book, and all others that purport to deal with the scandal are at a stroke rendered redundant in their narrowness. This one excels, above all, as a study of human nature in some of its most intriguing and arresting forms’

 

(Simon Heffer, Literary Review )

‘[An] honest and compelling book … Bringing the House Down is notably well written, vivid and easy to read.’

(Ian Gilmour, London Review of Books )

 ‘An intimate, unsentimental account of the 20th century’s greatest sex scandal’

 

(Sebastian Shakespeare, Tatler )

About the Author
David Profumo was born in London in 1955. He is the author of two novels, Sea Music and The Weather In Iceland. A former teacher, and now a freelance journalist, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1997. He lives with his wife and three children in London and Perthshire.

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Customer Reviews

Bought on a whim, glad I did!
When it's raining in Aberystwyth and you're stuck in your caravan, desperate for something meaty to read, and all the other in vogue autobiographies have proven too frothy, then reach for this. It has bite, it has depth, it is incredibly well-written. This is the story of the Profumo family , and it's more than just THAT scandal. It's the story of a marriage, a family, politics, the world of showbiz, upper class mores and so much more. I bought it on a whim, and was glad I did. It has been my read of the summer.

Bringing the house down - I don't think so
I struggled with this book from chapter one but tried to persevere until at least two thirds of the book - I have never read such a badly written and confusing book - from the onset the the author's mother was identified by so many names and initials that I lost track of who she was, by this time I was totally bored. This book is totally self-indulgent and exceedingly badly written, just another case of the publishers putting out yet another book for the christmas market and the author using the political scandal and name from the early 1960's to try to sell this. In my opinion don't buy it or get it from the library, let alone read it. A very disappointing book.

How badly can a book be written?
Given the theme of the relationship between Valerie Hobson and John Profumo and the whole Profumo crisis it is extraordinary how dull this book is. What a shame. it is long-winded, chaotic, self-centred, pretentious and competes for worst book of the year. Don't waste your money