Pearls Before Poppies by Rachel Trethewey

Pearls Before Poppies by Rachel Trethewey

In February 1918, when the First World War was still being bitterly fought, prominent society member Lady Northcliffe conceived an idea to help raise funds for the British Red Cross. Using her husband’s newspapers, The Times and the Daily Mail, she ran a campaign to collect enough pearls to create a necklace, intending to raffle the piece to raise money. The campaign captured the public’s imagination. Over the next nine months nearly 4,000 pearls poured in from around the world. Pearls were donated in tribute to lost brothers, husbands and sons, and groups of women came together to contribute one pearl on behalf of their communities. Those donated ranged from priceless heirlooms –one had survived the sinking of the Titanic – to imperfect yet treasured trinkets. Working with Christie’s and the International Fundraising Committee of the British Red Cross, author Rachel Trethewey expertly weaves the touching story of a generation of women who gave what they had to aid the war effort and commemorate their losses. In this new, updated edition, the last string of Red Cross pearls is revealed for the first time and the story behind their discovery told.

RACHEL TRETHEWEY read History at St Edmund Hall, Oxford, where she won the Philip Geddes Prize for student journalism. During her journalistic career she wrote features for the Daily Mail and Daily Express, and subsequently reviewed history books for The Independent. She is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and has previously written THE CHURCHILL GIRLS (2021) about Winston's daughters. She lives in Devon.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780750992091
ISBN 10	0750992093
Title	Pearls Before Poppies
Author	Rachel Trethewey
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	The History Press Ltd
Year published	2019-07-01
Number of pages	304
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
Note	Unavailable