The Secrets of Eaton Square: Sex, Scandal, and Infamy on the Road to Buckingham Palace

London’s Eaton Square has been the home of prime ministers, Hollywood celebrities, Nazi sympathizers, and one enduring murder mystery, as revealed in this delightfully gossipy if occasionally plodding account from historian Larman (Power and Glory). Previously a patch of marshland famous for a disastrous 1784 balloon flight attempt, the square, with its relatively “modest” but tony homes built beginning in 1827 under the auspices of “master builder” Thomas Cubitt, evolved into London’s “most fashionable address.” The author surveys two centuries’ worth of residents with an eye for scandal, from 19th-century art collector and Whig politician Ralph Bernal, whose legacy is marred by his advocacy for slavery; to mid-20th-century conservative politician Robert Boothby, known for his “taste for rough-trade sex and teenage boys”; to Neville Chamberlain, who rented out his home to buffoonish Nazi ambassador Joachim von Ribbontrop. The most morbidly riveting resident is Diana Mitford, whose relationship with “charismatic” fascist Oswald Mosley led her to not only praise Hitler after meeting him (she noted his “marvellous drollery”) but have him at her wedding. In comparison, the less shocking tales can drag—such as an exhaustive exploration of the careers of actors Rex Harrison and Vivian Leigh—and the square’s intriguing contemporary iteration as a home for Russian oligarchs only gets a brief mention. Still, it’s an amusingly lurid compendium of elites mostly behaving badly. (June)