Almina, Countess of Carnarvon : The Full Story Told

Almina, Countess of Carnarvon  The Full Story Told 

The Life and Secrets of Almina Carnarvon

Third Edition

With recollections from the only survivor who knows the truth about the Countess

There are currently two biographies on the extraordinary Almina Carnarvon of the book title. The Life and Secrets of Almina Carnarvon, by William Cross and Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey, from Highclere’s stable.

The two works are polls apart in terms of sources used, in content and the years covered. The books stack up for integrity. One book was produced under the auspices of a worldwide kingdom of a major publishing house, whilst the other was compiled single-handed over three years, by William Cross, FSA Scot, an experienced historical researcher, antiquarian and and a Fellow of the Antiquaries of Scotland.

William Cross was refused access to Herbert family sources at it's stately home at Highclere and the files hidden and forbidden that lie within the Archives of Highclere Castle, Hampshire, England a place now a veritable shrine, an iconic a structure that television has turned into a glorified biscuit- tin image in adverts and programme breaks.

Cross's book is one man's painstakingly researched efforts culled from devouring everything almost ever written about Almina and her first husband, George Herbert,  the 5th Earl of Carnarvon, the famed discoverer, with Howard Carter of Tutankhamun.

Cross's assault course has involved delving into numerous British, European and American Archives, The Royal Archives at Windsor Castle, the Rothschild Archives, London, the National Archives at Kew and the British Library among them- as well as papers and diaries held in private hands.

Testimonies have been gathered far and wide from many people who knew Almina, or knew about her. This was an epic process which began long before television, press or public made Highclere a universal phallus. Importantly, the one-man-band also draws for key personal testimony about Almina, the 5th Countess of Carnarvon from her surviving godson, Anthony ( Tony ) Leadbetter who actually lived with her for almost thirty years of her very long, colourful life. Tony's Aunt Alice Butler and his mother, Anne Leadbetter, were Almina's housekeepers from 1935 until 1969. If anyone knows what Almina was like it is Tony Leadbetter. There is no one in the Herbert family who has this experience of living under the same roof,  for the same duration with Almina over a number of the decades of life, and now, reliably, lovingly  recalling her voice, her memories and from a time when she was finally free at last to speak out candidly and frankly about her life and about those she knew, and loved and some whom she hated.

A writer and a publisher should always strive for indisputable accuracy and objectivity. The unvarnished truth about Almina, 5th Countess of Carnarvon is much too big to be suppressed, and that's why one of these books about her whole life, not a half life, half told, but all her life, told with a sense for seeking out the truth, will endure, with integrity, as her definitive biography, whilst the other will surely only be a minor accompaniment to a highly overrated television fiction.

The Life Secrets of Almina Carnarvon, Third Edition, is available from 15 December 2011.