Black diamonds

The extraordinary true story of the downfall of one of England's wealthiest families. The Fitzwilliam family founded a coal-mining dynasty and lived in the breathtaking Wentworth estate, the largest private home in England. When the sixth Earl Fitzwilliam died in 1902, he left behind the second largest estate in twentieth-century England, valued at billions of pounds. It was a lifeline to the tens of thousands of people who worked either in the family's coal mines or on their expansive estate. The earl also left behind four sons, and the family line seemed assured. But was it? As Bailey retraces the Fitzwilliam family history, she uncovers a legacy riddled with bitter feuds, scandals, (including Peter Fitzwilliam's ill-fated affair with American Kathleen "Kick" Kennedy, one of President John F. Kennedy's sisters), and civil unrest as the conflict between the coal industry and its miners came to a head.