Shortlisted for the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction 2016
Shortlisted for the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize 2016
Shortlisted for the Waverton Good Read Award 2016
Waterstones Book of the Month April 2016

 

Annie McDee, thirty-one and recovering from the end of a long-term relationship who is working as a chef and searching for a birthday present for her unsuitable new lover in a neglected London second-hand shop. Hidden behind a rubber plant on top of a file cabinet, a grimy painting catches her eye. Leaving the store with the picture after spending her meager savings, Annie prepares an elaborate birthday dinner for two, only to be stood up.

The painting becomes hers, and as it turns out, Annie has stumbled across a lost masterpiece by one of the most important French painters of the eighteenth century. But who painted this masterpiece is not clear at first. Soon Annie finds herself pursued by interested parties who would do anything to possess her picture. For a gloomy exiled Russian oligarch, an avaricious Sheika, a desperate auctioneer, an unscrupulous dealer among others, the painting embodies their greatest hopes and fears. In her search for the painting¹s identity, Annie will unwittingly uncover some of the darkest secrets of European history‹but also the possibility of falling in love again.

PREVIEWS

'I am head over heels in love with this book. Every page is a joy. It's funny, sad, profound. The writing dances. It has panache. It's beautifully structured. It wears its scholarship with a balletic lightness and grace that shadows the Rococo painting at its heart. Its many and varied characters are an exquisite joy. (Like Miss Bates in Emma, I don't know which out of the medley I'd pick, but perhaps it would be Sir Patrick, who manages to crush the hapless Earl with no more than a masterly 'crasphoislkenfijhnklend'?) Her range and emotional grasp is wonderful.

The art expert chat is always a triumph. What more can I say? It's my Book of the Year already.¹ BARBARA TRAPIDO

"THE IMPROBABILITY OF LOVE is a romp, a joy, and an inspired feast of clever delights. Reading this book is like a raid on a high-end pastry shop ‹ you marvel at the expertise and cunning of the creations, while never wanting the deliciousness to end." ­ ELIZABETH GILBERT

"Satirical, provocative, and exceedingly humorous, this novel mocks today's art world. A new twist: the leading painting speaks, gossiping about its previous owners. Rothschild delights us with glimpses of London life--as louche, chic, and freakish as early Evelyn Waugh. JOHN RICHARDSON

REVIEWS

‘An inspired feast of clever delights’
Elizabeth Gilbert

‘I am head over heels in love with this book’
Barbara Trapido

‘Totally delicious’
The Times

‘Clever, funny, beguiling’
Independent

‘A masterpiece’
Daily Mail

‘A page-turner’
Sunday Times

‘A frolicsome art-world caper’
New York Times

 

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Download the press release here

A Rothschild by birth and a Baroness by marriage, beautiful, spirited Pannonica – known as Nica – seemed to have it all: children, a handsome husband and a trust fund. But in the early 1950s she heard a piece by the jazz legend Thelonious Monk. The music overtook her like a magic spell, and she abandoned her marriage to go and find him.

Arriving in New York, Nica was shunned by society but accepted by the musicians. They gave her friendship; she gave them material and emotional support. Her convertible Bentley was a familiar sight outside the clubs and she drank whisky from a hip flask disguised as a Bible.

Her notoriety was sealed when drug-addicted saxophonist Charlie Parker died in her apartment. But her real love was reserved for Monk, whom she cared for until his death in 1982.

The Baroness traces Nica's extraordinary, thrilling journey – from England's stately homes to the battlefields of Africa, passing under the shadow of the Holocaust, and finally to the creative ferment of the New York jazz scene. Hannah Rothschild's search to solve the mystery of her rebellious great aunt draws on their long friendship and years of meticulous research and interviews. It is part musical odyssey, part dazzling love story.

Please click here for Jools Holland BBC Radio 2 interview with Hannah Rothschild about The Baroness book.

Selection for Mandelson, The Real PM?

'There are so many best bits in this documentary that it is hard to choose between them, though a knockabout routine with Alastair Campbell deserves a special mention...Mandelson is a gift to a film maker but Rothschild has made the best of her material. Beautifully observed, intelligent and subtly subversive, this is a real tour de force.' Jane Shilling, Evening Standard.

'Astonishing Viewing. A jaw droppingly candid view- that takes no prisoners- of a tumultuous period in British politics.' Sharon Lougher, Metro

'Riveting viewing' Marc Deanie, The Sun

'Totally engrossing' Daily Express

Radio Times - 'the end result is something quite remarkable - a fly-on-the-wall documentary in the best traditions of the genre that offers a stripped-down view of politics in its rawest, most compelling form.'

Michael Crick - 'it should become one of the classic political documentaries.'

'When a political documentary works ­The War Room for example ­ it channels the adrenalin which addicts politicians and the sheer thrill of the pure political animal. Hannah Rothschild¹s documentary for BBC¹s Storyville strand is an extraordinary portrait of Britain¹s Peter Mandelson in the run-up to this May¹s general election. Hannah Rothschild¹s documentary has the potential to attract wider audiences than the Westminster village despite its narrow UK focus and sits comfortably in the Storyville roster of excellence (Hoop Dreams, Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired).' Finn Haligan, Screen International

'It's wonderful- its funny, thoroughly researched, intense, clever and beautifully constructed.' Molly Dineen, Today Programme, Radio 4

'A gripping and brilliant film' Rosie Boycott Evening Standard

'It offers a fascinating view from inside that weird, endgame election – imagine a slow, knackered version of The Thick Of It, without the swearing – and there are brilliant moments: here he is in his pants and socks; here he is with hulking auld enemy, Alastair Campbell, eating soggy sandwiches as they watch the first PM’s debate on TV. Best of all, more footage of that foxtrot with a pensioner in Blackpool.' Scotland Herald

'an engrossing look at the run-up to the general election.' Geoffrey Mcnab The independent

'an intensely fun film to watch.' Dave Calhoun, Time Out

'The genius of this film is that it captures the bits in between to create an unforgettable portrait' Stephen Frears, The Evening Standard

'..this is heaven for political geeks. More than the sheer thrill of having a camera placed at the heart of the government machine - where journalists are seldom allowed to tread - the documentary's main strength is that it is actually rather hilarious...We feel like flies on a tremendously interesting wall.' Peter Wozniak, Politics.co.uk

Harper's Bazaar - November 2010 - Click here to read

Evening Standard - 13 October 2010 - Click here to read

Selection for The Jazz Baroness

'Pannonica Rothschild's story reads like one of those lurid and doomed romantic melodramas that the reader just knows can only end with the tragic ruin of everyone involved.' New York Daily News

'The film is especially good as it limns the story of the filmmaker hoping to glimpse a piece of her own family history.' Huffington Post

'It's the most beguiling music film since Eastwood's Straight No Chaser.' Peter Florence, Director Hay Festival of Literature and Ideas

'It all makes for compelling viewing. The project, conceived and directed by Hannah Rothschild, the baroness’s great-niece, is stylish and full of emotional colour. A film-maker whose earlier work includes studies of Picasso and Sickert, Rothschild has brought together a stunning cast of contributors: Sonny Rollins and the jazz aficionado Clint Eastwood are among those who add their reminiscences, while Helen Mirren reads. By the end, you wonder why Rothschild had to fight so hard to get the film made: the gruelling process of haggling with executives has taken no less than eight years. Once, when it seemed the film might never be completed, Rothschild received stirring advice from Rollins: “You have to finish it.' This isn’t just her story, it’s our story.' Clive Davis, Sunday Times

Selection for Hi Society: the Wonderful World of Nicky Haslam

Rothschild's last film was a similar-sounding profile of society decorator Nicky Haslam, glowingly reviewed by one critic as 'funny, camp, melancholy and appalling'. Ephraim Hardcastle, Daily Mail

For the socialite and interior designer Nicky Haslam a surprising number of things turn out to be fun. Having a stalker, for instance: "So chic," he said brightly in Storyville: Hi Society – the Wonderful World of Nicky Haslam. "We should all have one." Or spending three years of his childhood paralysed with polio ("It was rather fun"). Or the hazards of pre-Wolfenden homosexuality ("It was illegal still so that made it much more fun"). He's also got a very long list of things that he thinks are common, including swans, pronouncing the last t in "trait", scented candles, wheat intolerance, loving your parents and queuing at Annabel's. Fortunately, he probably doesn't have to do a lot of the latter because Nicky is to the London scene what the silver lady is on a Rolls-Royce. He attends up to five parties a night to exchange air kisses and squeals of delighted recognition before moving on, ceaselessly driving on through the crowd to where the flash of the paparazzi cameras is brightest.

You might pronounce Haslam absurd, a frantically self-renovating social butterfly who should never have made it past the Sixties, but there is something astonishing about his sheer devotion to his chosen cause. For almost all of his 70 years, he has devoted every waking hour to networking, party-going and rubbing shoulders with the wealthy and beautiful. The Independent

His attitude is that nostalgia is worthless, and the only option is to seize the present and advance glamorously into the future. Adam Sweeting, The Arts Desk

it's a study of loneliness. It perfectly illustrates the loneliness of the crowded life. It's as good as Chekhov. Cressida Connelly

'Brilliant' Lucian Freud

'Hannah Rothschild has made a wonderful documentary about him' Lynn Barber, Times