The House where the Weather was Made

From 1881 to 1914 Highbury, standing on the edge of Birmingham in the English Midlands, was the home of Joseph Chamberlain, the often controversial politician described by Winston Churchill as ‘the one who made the political weather’.

In this fascinating book Chamberlain’s biographer, Peter Marsh, explores how the house designed and built for Chamberlain became the centre of a dynasty that shaped the political history of Britain and its Empire.

Highbury was also the family home shared by Chamberlain and his third wife Mary whom he had married in the United States of America. New research conducted by historian Justine Pick with Professor Marsh provides a unique window into their marriage and the private persona of the contentious and often caricatured politician.

The House where the Weather was Made also reveals the pathos of Chamberlain’s final eight years of life following the stroke which left him paralysed and how, after his death in 1914, Highbury was abandoned by the family before becoming a wartime hospital and a home for elderly women.

Today, the house with all the stories it has to tell is beginning a new chapter of renewal under the stewardship of the Chamberlain Highbury Trust.

Keywords: Chamberlain, Highbury, Joseph Chamberlain, Justine Pick, Peter Marsh