Press Reviews

• William Boyd

  A completely fascinating and revelatory biography, written with great aplomb, insight and shrewd analysis. A triumph

• Liza Mundy, bestselling author of The Sisterhood and Code Girls

  One of the most accomplished biographers of our time. Purnell gifts readers with a vivid, glittering, sexy, scintillating, beautifully written portrait of a woman who drove 20th century history even as history was driving her. Kingmaker is a rich and nuanced study of power--its allure, its perils, the gratifications and the great cost of its pursuit

• Denise Kiernan, New York Times bestselling author of The Girls of Atomic City, The Last Castle, and We Gather Together

  Sonia Purnell escorts readers behind the scenes, beneath the covers, and between the lines as she crafts an enthralling and exhaustive portrait of Pamela Harriman, whose life and legacy have long deserved the kind of insightful treatment that someone with Purnell's storytelling talents can provide ... A deliciously seductive read

• Giles Milton, author of The Stalin Affair: The Impossible Alliance that Won the War

  A perfumed seductress with a big heart and even bigger hair, Pamela Harriman trailed jewels and luxury as she befriended everyone from Sinatra and Mandela to Kennedy and Nixon. In Kingmaker, Sonia Purnell triumphantly resurrects this British-born aristocrat (and daughter-in-law of Winston Churchill) whose life was intertwined with many of the greatest movers and shakers of the twentieth century. Addicted to men with riches and power, Pamela's lack of formal education proved no handicap to her becoming President Clinton's hand-picked ambassador to France. Meticulously researched and served up with great panache, this is the biography that Pamela Harriman so richly deserves

• Lady Anne Glenconner, bestselling author of Lady in Waiting

  A superb and fascinating account of Pamela Churchill Harriman's life. It certainly puts the record straight and I can't recommend it more

• Alastair Campbell

  An incredible story, beautifully told, of a remarkable woman whose political influence spanned Churchill to Clinton, and whose sex life alone would make a Hollywood blockbuster. Quite a woman, quite a read

• Booklist Starred Review

  A compulsively readable, multifaceted portrait of an oft-misunderstood woman whose role in twentieth-century geopolitics has, until now, been severely underappreciated

• Kirkus Reviews

  Meticulous research informs a captivating biography

• Anne Sebba

  Wonderful ... brilliantly readable and fair minded. Was there anyone else like Pamela Churchill Harriman? And will there ever be again?

• Harper's

  Purnell convincingly turns a comic-book enchantress into a sensualist operator, equally fluent in U.N. Security Council resolutions, table linens, and oral sex

• Sarah Watling, Daily Telegraph

  In Purnell's hands, Kingmaker becomes a study of the limited means of influence available to ambitious women of Harriman's generation

• Town and Country, Must Read Books of the Fall

  This captivating new look sees Harriman for who she truly was [and] digs deep into what made Harriman who she was-sharp, tactical, power-hungry, generous, infamous-and why she managed to find herself at the crux of almost every major event in her lifetime. It's a crash course in history, to be sure, but also a finely observed story of becoming who you're meant to be-whether the world approves or not

• Spectator

  Purnell's research is impeccable

• New York Times

  Rigorous but rollicking

• The New Yorker

  A thorough account of Harriman's rise which also manages to be a brisk, twisty read ... Riveting and revelatory

• Observer Book of the Day

  Sympathetic, well-researched, busily peopled ... The most astonishing passages of the book concern Churchill Harriman's early role as an intelligence-gathering intermediary between the British war cabinet and the Americans

• Clemency Burton-Hill, Financial Times

  Supremely enjoyable ... With a historian's eye for rigour, a journalist's for detail and a storyteller's for drama, Purnell is extremely persuasive ... Refreshing and timely; meticulously researched ... Pamela, in Purnell's deft hands, blossoms into a fascinating subject

• New Statesman

  Purnell's achievement in this vivid narrative is to show just why so many men and women of influence wanted her blessing

• Irish Examiner

  A page turner that matches her subject in verve and ambition ... Tremendous

• Amanda Foreman, Guardian

  Purnell makes the case for Pamela as a woman of substance ... Kingmaker is on to something important. Successful women are judged differently than men

• Lisa Hilton, TLS

  Kingmaker is as compelling as its subject

• Sunday Independent

  Comprehensive and warm ... Purnell gets across the energy and tenacity of her subject ... A very enjoyable account of a fascinating life

• Ysenda Maxtone Graham, Daily Mail

  A wonderfully racy romp [and] a gripping biography of a brave, ambitious woman

• Janet Gordon, Rest Less

  A fascinating read and would make an enthralling present for a history enthusiast

• Telegraph, Best Biographies and Memoirs of 2024

  Pamela Churchwell Harriman [is] a figure who might have been invented by Jilly Cooper . . . the world's almost only diplomat-cum-courtesan, knew everyone, went everywhere, wore fabulous frocks, and helped shape post-war British and American politics

• Times Literary Supplement

  Sonia Purnell raises disturbing and enduring questions about constraints of female influence, emotional duplicity and sexual exploitation

• Economist

  A romp of a read

• Mail on Sunday, Books of the Year

  Her life story is a terrific romp, and this biography an exhilarating read, a treasure trove of top-table gossip. But it also has historical significance. As an intimate of presidents and numerous other leaders, [Pamela Churchill Harriman] was more than a mere courtesan

• Cleo Watson (author of Whips), Politico, Westminster’s top books of 2024

  Harriman's life from [Winston] Churchill's daughter-in-law to [Bill] Clinton's ambassador to France is full of highs and lows, as she constantly reinvents herself with the one thing people underestimate and can't teach - emotional intelligence and knockout sexual charisma."

• Irish Examiner, Books of the Year

  A very well written biography of one of the major secondary figures of the last century ... Almost Anna Karenina meets West Wing

• London Standard, Books of the Year 2024

  An epic, revisionist biography of Winston Churchill's formidable but fun daughter-in-law

• Terri Apter, TLS, Books of the Year 2024

  Raises disturbing and eternal questions about constraints of female influence, emotional duplicity and sexual exploitation

• Financial Times, Books of the Year 2024

  A riveting biography of a woman who was involved in some way with the most of the important people and events of the 20th century

• Guardian, Best biographies and memoirs of 2024

  A rich and riveting portrait of the daughter-in-law of Winston Churchill, a canny diplomat who exerted remarkable influence on mid-20th-century politics

• Amanda Craig

  Enchanted by this superb biography, which reads like a Nancy Mitford novel rewritten by Ian Fleming and John le Carre. I can't put it down. A feast of gossip, intelligence, courage and daring

• Elizabeth Day

  I've been gobbling up Kingmaker ... For years, Pamela's achievements were overshadowed by gossipy whispers about her past. Finally, she has a book that is worthy of her