Heirs and Graces: an ‘enthralling’ deep dive into the decline of nobility

Although Britain’s aristocracy no longer enjoys the wealth and status it once possessed, it still inspires a “bizarre fascination”, said Henry Mance in the Financial Times . “Just look at the success of ‘ Downton Abbey ’, the continued interest in Lord Lucan’s 1974 disappearance, and the number of newspaper headlines about dukes and lords.” In “Heirs and Graces”, the journalist Eleanor Doughty “maps the 796 families in Britain with hereditary titles” in order to discover, as she puts it, “who they are and how they tick”. It’s a book that is “dense with personal stories” – you may “lose track of the baronets” – but Doughty, a generally “sympathetic chronicler”, does an excellent job of illuminating the nobility, exploring their habits and attitudes, their daily lives and larger concer