MPLS for Metropolitan Area Networks

Far more than simply a chronicle of a Victorian marriage, this biography of Edward Cecil and his wife Violet paints a vivid picture of the life of the aristocracy and political elite in imperial Britain. Born in 1867, the son of the influential Prime Minister Lord Salisbury, Edward followed a conventional route into adulthood, attending Eton and then joining the Grenadier Guards, with whom he saw action in the Sudan and Boer War before being transferred to Egypt where he served in the finance ministry under Kitchener. He married Violet in 1894, but she was an intelligent, sociable and often outspoken women, and Edward never quite matched up to her expectations. Instead she formed a lasting attachment to the influential statesman, Alfred Milner whom she married after Edward's death from Spanish flu and TB. Their happy marriage was cut short by Alfred's death after only four years, and Violet lived as a widow for over 30 years. She remained, however, an active member of society, mixing in royal circles and continuing to engage in politics as she took over the running of her brother's political newspaper, the National Review. With a helpful family tree, maps, photographs and an extensive bibliography, the book gives an interesting and detailed account of what was a turbulent time in history. Insights into the machinations of the great political and military figures of the day are combined with portrayals of family and social life, in the austere setting of the magnificent Jacobean Hatfield House or the idyll of Cecil Rhodes's house in South Africa, and the personal tragedy of Violet and Edward as they, like so many of their friends, lost their son in the First World War. (Kirkus UK)