Glorious Goodwood: A Biography of England’s Greatest Sporting Estate
Available now to order
I hope that this book will be as fascinating for the reader as it has been for me. It tells the story of my family over the last three hundred years and how the different sports have played such a key role at Goodwood, as well as bringing the different dukes to life in a brilliant and colourful way.
A historic journey
Famous throughout the world as England’s greatest sporting estate, Goodwood has been the home of the Dukes of Richmond for over three hundred years. From foxhunting to cricket, shooting to horseracing, and golf to motorsport, each of the sports stems from a personal passion of one of the dukes.
Glorious Goodwood takes the reader on a historic journey starting in the seventeenth century with the escapades of the first Duke of Richmond (Charles II's illegitimate son), through the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries (with interludes in Brussels and Scotland) and ending in the present day, all set against a backdrop of British history.
The three hundred years that the book embraces charts the ups and downs of a great English aristocratic family and how they responded to the challenges life presented, both as people of their times and as innovators, always with a love of sport that they willingly shared with others.
Photography by Daniel Gould / Country Life
James Peill, Author
James Peill has been the Curator of the Goodwood Collection since 2009. He was brought up in the Welsh Marches and read History of Art at Edinburgh University.
He was formerly a Director of Christie's where he was a specialist in the Furniture Department and an auctioneer. He is the author of several books including The English Country House.
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