Black Diamonds: The Rise and Fall of an English Dynasty by Catherine Bailey
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This is a book which actually took my breath away as I had not expected it to be remotely as interesting as it ended up being. Not only does the work concern itself with the story of the 19th and 20th century doings of the FitzWilliam tragedy (which in themselves are enough for the old adage that one needs not invent fiction but only look into history for a good, if tragic, story), but also the history of mining in that time and the related politics.
What joins this story is how in the period of the decline of aristocratic values some people follow a higher standard and others do not — and it is beautifully demonstrated how this has nothing to do with neither class nor upbringing nor fortune, and everything with the innate generosity in a soul. Indeed, this book re-affirmed some of my values with regards to what is reasonable as well as what is not — and it is wonderful to think that other people can deduce the exact opposite from the very same facts.
