Against a backdrop of increasing democratic freedom and the associated process of aristocratic decline, this book examines the political influence of the leading Tory hostesses, the Marchionesses of Londonderry. Over one hundred and fifty years, from 1800-1959, these women were patrons and confidantes to key political figures such as Disraeli, Bonar Law, Edward Carson and Ramsay MacDonald. By the late nineteenth century upper-class women were at the height of their prowess, exerting political sway by private means whilst exploiting more public avenues of political work: canvassing, addressing meetings and leading the new associations established in an attempt to educate a mass electorate. At that time this hybrid of private and public aristocratic politicking aroused little criticism but, by the interwar period, the alleged hold that the 7th Marchioness of Londonderry, Edith Vane-Tempest-Stewart, had over MacDonald prompted widespread criticism of her role as the 'Mother' of the National Government.

The Ladies of Londonderry offers the first examination of the powerful political hostesses of the Anglo-Irish establishment and sheds considerable light on the workings of nineteenth- and twentieth-century politics.