| A Charmed Life: Growing Up in Macbeth's Castle | 
 enlarge | Author: Liza Campbell
Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  12 reviews
Sales Rank: 102771
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 336
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 8.5 x 5.9 x 1.3
ISBN: 0312374771
Dewey Decimal Number: 941.158085092
EAN: 9780312374778
ASIN: 0312374771
Publication Date: October 16, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Used - Good
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Product Description
We grew up with the same parents in the same castle, but in many ways we each had a moat around us. Sometimes when visitors came they would say, “You are such lucky children; it’s a fairytale life you live.” And I knew they were right, it was a fairytale upbringing. But fairy tales are dark and I had no way of telling either a stranger or a friend what was going on; the abnormal became ordinary. Liza Campbell was the last child to be born at the impressive and renowned Cawdor Castle, the family seat of the Campbells, as featured in Shakespeare’s Macbeth. Liza’s father Hugh, the twenty-fifth Thane, inherited dashing good looks, brains, immense wealth, an ancient and revered title, three stately homes, and 100,000 acres of land. A Charmed Life tells the story of Liza’s idyllic childhood with her four siblings in Wales in the 1960s, until Hugh inherited Cawdor Castle and moved his family up to the Scottish Highlands. It was at the historical ancestral home that the fairytale began to resemble a nightmare. Increasingly overwhelmed by his enormous responsibilities, Hugh tipped into madness fuelled by drink, drugs, and extramarital affairs. Over the years, the castle was transformed into an arena of reckless extravagance and terrifying domestic violence, leading to the abrupt termination of a legacy that had been passed down through the family for six hundred years. Written with a sharp wit, A Charmed Life is a contemporary fairytale that tells what is like to grow up as a maiden in a castle where ancient curses and grisly events from centuries ago live on between its stone walls. Painstakingly honest and thoroughly entertaining, Liza Campbell offers a compelling look at what it is like to grow up with enormous privilege and yet watch the father she idealizes destroy himself, his family, and his heritage. Praise for A CHARMED LIFE: "Beautifully written…eminently readable…A memoir which has many elements to identify with--even if you ain't no Lady." --Tama Janowitz, author of Slaves of New York and Area Code 212 “Campbell tells the wild, sorry tale with a sharp, offhand wit.” -- Sunday Times (UK)
“She writes not from catharsis or revenge, but in the spirit of puzzlement and discovery...Completely compelling.” -- Daily Telegraph (UK)
“A gripping page turner...A CHARMED LIFE is a great title, and Liza Campbell's book lives up to it.” -- Daily Mail (UK) “A modern tragedy ... Written with great courage ... A stark tale of profligacy and injustice.” -- Country Life (UK)
“A very powerful, painful story...I have never read such a compelling study of addiction...An exceptional writer.” -- Mail on Sunday (UK)
“This is a sad book; yet Campbell’s lack of sentimentality and needle-sharp wit make for a guiltily voyeuristic read.” – Independent (UK)
“A memoir that is as free of self-pity as it is of sentimentality ... Poignant.”
–Scotsman (UK) “As a prose stylist, Liza is comparable to Nancy Astor: wry, deadpan, whimsical.” -- The Sunday Telegraph (UK)
Book Description
“You are such lucky children,” Liza Campbell was often told, “it’s a fairytale life you live.” Liza’s father did, after all, hold the title of Thane of Cawdor, and the family divided their time between Cawdor Castle (as featured in Shakespeare’s Macbeth) and other impressive homes in England and Wales. Theirs was a family with a legacy that had lasted almost a millennium. Her father would, in the course of his life and his descent in to madness and addiction, fail to pass that legacy along. He was a man haunted by demons; he would often drink himself into oblivion, recklessly driving along the narrow roads of northern Scotland and Wales, routinely crashing and coming within an inches of death. In his moments of “reformation,” he still lived in an alternate reality. This is the story of her early life, her family, and her father's ultimate failure.
This wonderful, heartbreaking, yet ultimately forgiving memoir recalls a childhood played out on an extraordinary and secluded stage.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 7 more reviews...
 Not so charming November 7, 2008
The concept of A CHARMED LIFE is intriguing, if not charming. Written by Liza Campbell, a member of the 26th consecutive generation of the family made famous in Shakespeare's MacBETH--and the final member of the family to be born at the notorious castle--there was no way that this memoir could fail to be interesting.
And the family history is, indeed, interesting. Yet the modern generations seems more demented and perverted than they seem compelling; those of them who don't seem demented and/or perverted seem to be drop-outs from real life and understandably depressed.
The author's father, the 25th Thane, descended into madness, probably exacerbated by the privileged life he lived in drug-drenched 1960s. At his best, he was so cruel as to be sadistic--and possibly incestuous as well.
Writing this memoir presumably was cathartic for Liza Campbell, his daughter. Yet it doesn't make for very good reading for outsiders once one gets past the rather brief explanation of the family's past.
Liza Campbell's girlhood at the castle was anything but charmed. For a similar memoir of growing up in an ancient and noble British family, but a cheerful version at that, read Lady Annabelle Goldsmith's memoir instead.
 A true delight in every way May 5, 2008
I stumbled across this book when searching for something else. I was intrigued by the title because I once traveled to Scotland and wanted to visit Cawdor, but it was closed as it was the off season. I did however travel the general area, and I looked forward to reading about her life at Cawdor. I was richly surprised to uncover a wonderful gem of a memoir filled with references to the Scottish landscape I so enjoyed visiting. Ms. Campbell is an excellent writer. Her use and command of the English language was a pleasure to experience. Her story, and that of her siblings, was something out of a fairy tale in many regards, yet it was also a nightmare, easily recognized by others who grew up with an alcoholic parent. I enjoyed the book immensely and recommend it highly. I have tremendous respect for her, cemented by the fact that in the notes at the end of the book, she thanked her mother for her permission to share with readers intimate, yet privately painful experiences of her marriage. I greatly look forward to another book penned by Ms. Campbell.
Beautifully written memoir March 21, 2008
This was a beautifully written memoir about what goes on behind closed doors in the so called "upper class" Campbell family. Sad to see what drugs and alcohol can do to someone who had so much already and so much to give (but didn't). I found the historical background to the scottish aristocracy really fascinating and educational without being boring. I would have liked to know more about the other members of the family and how they all felt about the way they were ultimately betrayed by their father and revolting step-mother.
Money can't buy ya love January 14, 2008
I found this book well-written and thoroughly engrossing, although I believe that the original British title ("Title Deeds") is more descriptive of the contents, particularly given the current and continuing legal wranglings. However, the double entendre would be lost, I think, on most Americans. The author aptly calls this a personal memoir, rather than a biography, of her father, but I couldn't shake the feeling that, notwithstanding her attempt at some rudimentary psychoanalysis of and conciliation with her father's memory in the final chapter, she is still highly conflicted about her feelings concerning not only her father, but also her birth mother and stepmother. Charmed life? I don't think so.
 Disappointing January 7, 2008
1 out of 6 found this review helpful
I was very disapppointed in this book and am very surprised it has received so many positive reviews. It was shallow and offered little - if any - insight into the author's family. The stories were superficial and often just depicted the author's narrow view of each set of circumstances.
I am now reading Miranda Seymour's book "In My Father's House," and the difference is remarkable. It is so much more insightful and the writing is outstanding.
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