{"id":280169,"date":"2025-10-05T19:48:17","date_gmt":"2025-10-05T19:48:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/280169\/"},"modified":"2025-10-05T19:48:17","modified_gmt":"2025-10-05T19:48:17","slug":"what-does-a-modern-member-of-the-house-of-guinness-want-you-to-know-about-his-family-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/280169\/","title":{"rendered":"What Does a Modern Member of the House of Guinness Want You to Know About His Family History?"},"content":{"rendered":"

A message at the beginning of House of Guinness reads, \u201cThis fiction is inspired by true stories.\u201d So, while not everything you see in the new series, streaming now on Netflix, is actually based in fact, the parts that are hold a special interest for Arthur Edward Guinness, the fourth earl of Iveagh, whose ancestors<\/a> actually lived them.<\/p>\n

In his own new book Guinness: A Family Succession: The True Story of the Struggle to Create the World’s Largest Brewery<\/a>, Guinness updates the history of his family<\/a> from the privately published books that had been commissioned by previous generations to something meant for a wider audience. Does what it reveals about the famil<\/a>y line up exactly with what fans of the series might see on TV? Not exactly<\/a>, but Guinness himself doesn\u2019t seem too concerned. \u201cI’m someone who sits on the shoulders of giants,\u201d he tells T&C. \u201cI would hope that my forebears are depicted in a positive manner. But like all human beings, I’m sure we\u2019ve had the good and the bad. No one is perfect, of course.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"HouseIan West – PA Images\/\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Arthur Edward Guinness, the fourth Earl of Iveagh, at the London premiere of House of Guinness in September 2025.<\/p>\n

Here, Guinness shares the story of why he wrote the book and what he learned about his famous family in the process.<\/p>\n

What made you want to want to write this book? <\/p>\n

My great grandfather, Rupert, who I never had the privilege of knowing, was an amazing man who lived well into his nineties. He was chairman of Guinness from 1927 until he handed it over to my father in the early 1960s. He had commissioned a book by George Martelli, which told the story of the foundations of Guinness for the generations that were to come. A few copies were made, not many, and I had the privilege of seeing the book and enjoying it from an early age. Like any good Irish family, we continue to multiply, so of course those books become ever scarcer and ever more thinly distributed through the growing family. That was a key motivator for formatting a very different book to the one that was commissioned by my great grandfather, but one which keeps the story alive.<\/p>\n

I’m aware of if the story doesn’t get told, the story can get told in many different ways, and some of them will be inaccurate. Some will have axes to grind; some will not reference family papers and primary sources like I’m privileged to have. And I have Arthur Guinness on my passport, I’m proud of being an Arthur Guinness, and I’ll tell my version of the story with access that I have\u2014hopefully it’s readable, entertaining, and informative.<\/p>\n

\"HouseBen Blackall\/Netflix<\/p>\n

Anthony Boyle as Arthur Guinness in House of Guinness, which is streaming now on Netflix.<\/p>\n

Did you learn anything new about your family in writing the book? <\/p>\n

What I’ve really loved are the anecdotal stories, and I’ve been able to uncover some wonderful, little things with a vastness of anecdotes about the characters. There haven\u2019t been revelations, but more small stories of humanity. In researching the book, I found my grandmother\u2019s album from when the King and Queen of England visited in Suffolk, where I live. There\u2019s a drawing in the middle of that book\u2014which has all these grand shooting parties and royals signing their names and posing for photos with Lord This and Whoever That\u2014and it\u2019s a drawing of a girl wearing basically rags and no shoes in a street scene, and I think it might have been from one of those guests remembering a scene in Dublin. It\u2019s my interpretation that this came from someone who experienced and had been privileged to witness humanity, because our family at that time supported people who needed support even if the cause was not necessarily fashionable.<\/p>\n

Did you feel a responsibility to set the record straight with House of Guinness coming out? <\/p>\n

We hadn\u2019t [as of the time of this interview] had the privilege of seeing the series, so I wouldn\u2019t conclude in any which way before seeing what Netflix would produce. But I was very happy to put forward a family history in hopefully a digestible and readable format and that would appeal to people. Netflix can do what they will do, and I do hope it will be entertaining, and I also hope that it will have reference to historical events. Guinness is about connecting with people and always has been\u2014if it didn’t connect, it wouldn’t be anywhere\u2014so I celebrate the engagement and I hope it will be jolly good. I’m looking forward to it.<\/p>\n

Guinness: A Family Succession: The True Story of the Struggle to Create the World’s Largest Brewery<\/p>\n

\"Guinness:<\/a>What comes next for you? <\/p>\n

I’m thinking about another book that will move forward from where I’ve left off\u2014but that\u2019s even more sensitive because we get into the age of the living. I would like to celebrate some of the good that I know happened after my great-great grandfather Ned died in 1927, so it could be brought up to date. I think it’s a balance between producing something that will be real and be fair and also highlight some issues which are relevant to us and hopefully the next generation or two. I think one of the things that is in my book is how my forebears were able to be independent from the establishment. They were prepared to stand their ground and have an independence; they pursued their own agenda, which actually was incredibly enlightened and ahead of their time.<\/p>\n

\"Play\"House\"Headshot<\/p>\n

Adam Rathe is Town & Country’s Deputy Features Director, covering film, theater, books, travel, art, philanthropy, and a range of other subjects.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A message at the beginning of House of Guinness reads, \u201cThis fiction is inspired by true stories.\u201d So,…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":280170,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[1022,2392,144862,1201,171,3181,2875,144861,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-280169","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-books","8":"tag-books","9":"tag-content-type-feature","10":"tag-contentid-040bd75c-fc92-4181-a080-449755a9f7ee","11":"tag-displaytype-standard-article","12":"tag-entertainment","13":"tag-hasproduct-true","14":"tag-locale-us","15":"tag-shorttitle-a-real-guinness-on-the-family-history","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-unitedstates","18":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115323294205035740","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=280169"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280169\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/280170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=280169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=280169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=280169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}