Hi
Yes, the book was published in 1986 and I read it some time ago as well. And I heard Angela Fox on a local London talk radio station discussing it. Nearly everything in the programme is in her book which is beautifully written and really gives one a taste of the times.
The original research seemed to be about the collapse of the company and the linking with the Royal College of Music and Edward VII. Angela Fox had a lot of extra information about Samson (who among other talents was an accomplished violinist) and the rest of the family in her book.
She doesn't name them all, but Hilda and Lily Hanbury were part of a whole crop of cousins all of whom were actresses: Julia Neilsen, Florence Jamieson, Hilda Jacobson, Nora and Eileen Kerin.
If you look on The Genealogist website
http://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/featuredarticles/wdytya_emiliafox.php and click on the link to the family tree at the bottom, Hilda and Lily were the daughters of Mathew Alcock and Elizabeth Davis who had five daughters. Matthew was the son of James and Susan Alcock. Elizabeth was the daughter of John Davis and Julia Keesing. Certainly Julia Keesing was of Dutch Jewish descent and it may be John Davis was as well.
It may be of interest that the "American Tart" Willie (really Arthur William) Fox ran off with was also a musical comedy actress Edna Lewisohn born McCauley who married banker Jesse Lewisohn and became the mistress of 'Diamond' Jim Brady. No idea about her parentage but if anyone has a subscription to the New York Times, there is an archive obituary which may say more. It ended badly for her because she died shortly afterwards of appendicitis in Paris.
If I remember rightly, Pamela Michael is the name of Robin Fox's sister who married a literary agent, Maurice Michael.
I think Angela Worthington Fox also has Sephardi Jewish ancestry. Her mother was Muriel Morice who was herself illegitimate, the daughter of a stockbroker and a coachman's daughter. I think the stockbroker was of Jewish descent. But as I've said on another board, I think they were all taking their cue from the Prince of Wales and then King Edward VII whose dalliances with actresses, society ladies, parlour maids were legendary but probably not more than a lot of monied men of that time!
Muriel had one legitimate daughter by Dr Worthington and the rest of the girls were daughters of Frederick Lonsdale. It's said that Frederick first approached Muriel's legitimate half-sister who wasn't interested and suggested he pass to her illegitimate half sister. So these men were always sniffing around and he also moved on to someone new after Muriel.
As Angela Fox says of the Fox family but it surely could apply to any number of the families at that time: "The Foxes were really men's men; women were vitally necessary but as ornaments chiefly - to be turned to when the day's business and fun were over. Women were considered to exist to please, to comfort, to amuse their men - and if they failed, the men left them. It was up to the women to see that the financial settlements were to their liking - a hard code, perhaps, but that's how they were."
