A major figure behind his nephew Philip's marriage to Queen Elizabeth II and instrumental in the Royal Family taking the Mountbatten name and the last Viceroy of India. Dickie Mountbatten had many roles to play. Including being married to Edwina, once the richest woman in Britain and a playgirl who enjoyed numerous affairs and emerged from World War II as a talented humanitarian worker, loved around the­ world.

From British high society to the South of France, from the battlefields of Burma to the Viceroy's House, our online talk #TheMountbattens takes you on a rich and filmic story of a powerful partnership, revealing the truth behind a carefully curated legend and fresh insights into Indian Independence and Edwina’s relationship with Nehru.

About the speaker: 

Andrew Lownie was educated at Cambridge University before taking his doctorate at the University of Edinburgh. He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, a former visiting fellow of Churchill College, Cambridge, a visiting professor at the Ulster Literary Biography Research Centre and President of the Biographers Club. He has written for the Times, Telegraph, Guardian, Spectator and All Street Journal and his books include the Sunday Times bestseller The Mountbattens: Their Lives and Loves.