The Countess took on a tremendous challenge. Writing about the family you marry into, especially those members that lived in the past, during time of profound change and challenge, and who often showed their own humanity in less than admirable ways -- well, it is a risk. But the Countess does it well using private letters, diaries, household records and scrapbooks to tell the stories. 
 This book doesn't flow as smoothly as her first, perhaps because she tries to do too much. The family, the servants, the royal succession crisis, politics, WWII are all covered in detail but the effect is choppy -- and becomes more so as the pages turn. It makes me think that she edited out an overwhelming amount of detail so this volume could begin with a wedding and end with the war's completion within a prescribed number of pages because that is what her editors told her to do.?It feels as if all the stories needed to be stuffed and organized into boxes, rather than allowed to roll out as they happened. I would have preferred more details from shorter blocks of time. And a third volume that covered just the war years. 
 It also feels as if the Countess has become more protective of the memories and stories, and less objective. She is more of a family member now, and less of an historian. 
 The book is still an important work, as it charts not just the fate of a family but continues to chart the changes in British society. But it leaves a lot of questions unanswered. It glosses over too many topics with cliches. There is more material ... Why isn't it on these pages? It is a start. A shallow view. 
 The one thing that bothered me was the way the family tree was presented. It could have been designed better, over more pages. Having a copy of the Earl's family tree would have been helpful. And I found it very interesting that there is no mention of the 8th Earl's first wife, given that she is the mother of the current heir. 
 This book leads me to want more, much as the volume on Countess Almina left me wanting more -- just in a different way.