Splendour & Squalor: Marcus Scriven

Splendour & Squalor

Splendour & Squalour book cover

Books by Marcus Scriven

Splendour & Squalor

Splendour & Squalor scrutinises the lives (and, to a degree, the deaths) of four aristocrats from three families: the FitzGeralds, the Herveys and the Montagus

The FitzGeralds

‘The FitzGeralds were an emblem of ancient nobility…At the time of the Domesday Book, they held land from the king in what were to become Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Middlesex and Surrey. In succeeding generations, they nudged their way westwards, first to Wales…then to Ireland. Under Edward, the family was to progress to unexpected territory: to Brixton and to Streatham, to a bed-sit in Birchington, Kent, to a flat in Sliema, Malta, and to another in Brighton; and, three times, to the bankruptcy court.’

Edward FitzGerald →

The Herveys

‘The Herveys, it has been confidently and repeatedly asserted, are genetically destined for damnation: programmed for lives of cruelty, self-indulgence, untamed lust and ultimate self-destruction.’

Victor Hervey →
John Hervey (‘John Bristol’) →

The Montagus

‘The Montagus’ twentieth century conduct…amounted to a Gadarene plunge unequalled in the peerage. As a Kimbolton man who knew Angus in childhood puts it: “What I’m wondering is, where are the white sheep in this family?”’

Angus Montagu →

Splendour & Squalor Index and Sources

Index: Obscure production reasons meant that the hardback edition of Splendour & Squalor lacks an index. This is a slightly more detailed version of the one which appears in the paperback edition.

Sources: It was originally hoped to include comprehensive source notes in both the hardback and paperback editions of Splendour & Squalor, but, since these notes totalled more than 1,500 in number, they were jettisoned. They will gradually appear here… Recorded speech in the present tense results from an interview, by telephone or in person, or from a letter by the person quoted. A substantial amount of recorded speech in the past tense is similarly derived from interview or correspondence.


Work in progress

Work in progress

Marcus Scriven is researching his second book.

Its central character is another twentieth century aristocrat, summarised by a first cousin as: ‘a very attractive man…a psychopath, of course’.

With thanks to www.thepeerage.com

© 2024 Marcus Scriven