A Landowner in Five Reigns by the Rt Hon the Earl of Pomfret KG

Thanks to David Noalia and Fine Art Connoisseur 

Title: A Landowner in Five Reigns 

Author: The Rt. Hon. the Earl of Pomfret K.G. etc.

Publisher: Johns and  Fairfield 
All royalties to Nutfield Cottage Hospital 

Source Book: Pomfret Towers by Angela Thirkell (Barsetshire #6)

Lord Pomfret invites Mr Johns, of Johns and Fairfield, into his library and tells him that he could pay twice what he paid the very successful author Hermione Rivers (see Autumn Passion Flower) for the privilege of publishing his memoirs. ‘Mr Johns could get the manuscript polished up by one of his writer chaps’, suggests Lord Pomfret, who describes his book as the Life of a Sporting Earl.

Lord Pomfret is not keen on Mr Johns seeing the manuscript before he agrees to publish the book, but most luckily Miss Merriman, Lady Pomfret’s indefatigable secretary, promises to post a typed copy to Johns and Fairfield.

When Mr Johns reads Lord Pomfret’s memoirs he thinks several passages are probably actionable and his lordship’s criticisms of his colleagues in a short-lived Government which he had once adorned are unprintable. But he considers that if he could get Lord Pomfret’s consent to a few alterations and excisions, the book, with Lord Pomfret’s name, would have a good chance. 

Lord Pomfret’s Five Reigns are, of course, Queen Victoria, Edward VII, George V, Edward VIII and George VI.

In the event 10,000 copies were sold and the book was serialised in a Sunday newspaper. And if I remember correctly all profits went to the local hospital.