Kingmaker: Pamela Harriman’s Astonishing Life of Power, Seduction, and Intrigue by Sonia Purnell
In her old age, she was the American ambassador to France and a confidant of Bill Clinton, and in her youth, she was married to Randolph Churchill and a confidant of his father, Winston. In the intervening years, Pamela Digby Churchill Hayward Harriman cultivated additional confidants on both sides of the Atlantic, took many, many lovers, and married three times. She died in 1997 aged seventy-seven, and thanks to “the best face-lift in the world” looked two decades younger.
Pamela Digby was born in Dorset in 1920. The Digbys were a conservative, aristocratic family of dwindling resources. With limited formal education, pudgy Pamela was expected to marry soon and marry well. Her first debutante season was a flop, and in haste she married Randoph Churchill, son of Winston, the following year. Randoph, in a rush to marry and lock in an heir before going off to war, had been turned down by nine women before he proposed to Pamela, who hardly knew him. Randolph was awful, but the elder Churchills adored Pamela and her son, little Winston. And while the arrogant, philandering, alcoholic Randolph was away, Pamela became Winston’s confidant.
Only nineteen years old, the WWII years were exhilarating for Pamela, despite the depravations and dangers of living in London. Strict conventions were loosened, and newly slim Pamela partied large and shared the gossip she gleaned with her mentors Winston and newspaper baron Lord Beaverbrook both of whom provided her with an allowance. She was a regular guest of her in-laws, and hosted generals, journalists, authors, and diplomats at popular gatherings of her own as well. She worked particularly hard nurturing influential Americans, who pre–Pearl Harbor were still sitting on the sidelines of the war. Among her (married) lovers were Averell Harriman and CBS correspondent Ed Murrow.
(If you want to know more about the Americans in London during WWII, I highly recommend Citizens of London by Lynne Olson.)
The post-war years were more trying for newly divorced Pamela. With limited funds (Randoph gambled more than he fought), she flitted about Europe, taking various lovers. Her two favorites were Italian Gianni Agnelli, who was anxious to erase the taint of fascism from his company, Fiat, and Élie de Rothschild. Pamela was generally an asset to her men. She was pretty, hosted brilliant parties, ran an impeccable household, and importantly had an intuitive sense of power and politics.
Recognizing that the USA was the new post WWII power, Pamela crossed the Atlantic. In 1960, she married playwright Leland Hayward, and after his death, she married her old flame Averell Harriman. Armed with Harriman money, Pamela entered politics. Influenced by her friendship with the Kennedys, she supported the Democratic party. As she did in wartime London, Pamela hosted glittering gatherings in her Georgetown home. And in that less partisan time, both Democrats and Republicans flocked to her popular parties. She was an early supporter of Bill Clinton, who rewarded her with the ambassadorship to France.
Pamela’s relationships with her son and stepchildren were less successful. Son Winston, alternatively neglected and spoiled, was an arrogant philanderer not unlike his father. Leland’s daughter Brooke Hayward painted a vicious portrait of Pamela in her 1977 bestseller Haywire. By the 1990s,Pamelawas embroiled in several ugly lawsuits with her Harriman stepdaughters.
Kingmaker is the first full length biography of Pamela since Life of the Party published in 1994 prior to her death. Purnell’s stated purpose is to elevate Pamela’s reputation from powerful courtesan to political influencer; I’m not sure Pamela would care or appreciate the distinction! Kingmaker is more earnest than Life of The Party, but I highly recommend both biographies.
If Pamela was the kingmaker, then Virginia Hall, the subject of another Purnell biography, was the queen of the shadows. A Woman of No Importance is the story ofVirginia Hall, an astonishingly brave and resourceful American who worked for Britain’s Special Operations Executive (SOE) and recruited and led resistance teams in France during WWII. She later worked for the fledgling CIA Fascinating.