Tuesday 31 December 2019

The 'Style Guide' by Simon Crompton, Founder of Permanent Style, and photographer Jamie Ferguson







The Style Guide
The Style Guide is constructed as a series of street-style shots featuring some of the most stylish people in the menswear industry. But unlike most style books, it focuses on practical analysis of every image, picking up why the outfit works in terms of texture, colour or cut. The effect is an attractive summary of the most important style advice discussed on Permanent Style over the past decade.

Simon Crompton, Founder of Permanent Style, and photographer Jamie Ferguson, have come together to create, 'The Style Guide'. As the founder of Permanent Style, Simon Crompton is one of the most respected menswear voices today, providing his opinion on quality makers, merchants, and his personal style. Along with Simon's commentary, Jamie Ferguson has provided some of his most beautiful photography capturing inspirational looks to help men learn and be inspired by some of today's leading menswear aficionados.

'The Style Guide' differs than the many other style-oriented guidebooks out there. As described by the author in the beginning of the book, "...I've always disliked straightforward street-style books, principally because they have little focus on actual style. Often the subject looks good because of the lighting, the background or the composition, rather than the clothes they are wearing. And there is little discussion of why the clothes work well (if they do)."

The book was supported by Anderson & Sheppard, Begg & Co, Edward Green and Vitale Barberis Canonico.

All Beckett & Robb copies of the Style Guide are signed by the author, Simon Crompton.

-188 pages
-23cm x 30cm (~9 x 12 in)







Monday 30 December 2019

Ces clubs parisiens confidentiels et ultraprivés où l'élite se retranche / 'These confidential and ultra-private Parisian clubs where the elite are entrenched'


Ces clubs parisiens confidentiels et ultraprivés où l'élite se retranche
Ils sont peu connus du grand public car une carte ou un parrain sont souvent nécessaires pour y entrer. On attend parfois des années. Découvrez les clubs les plus exclusifs de la capitale, fréquentés par l'élite sociale française.

Par Edouard Risselet
Publié le 12 juin 2015 à 18:05, mis à jour le 17 juin 2015 à 11:39





Le restaurant étoilé de l'hôtel Saint-James Paris est réservé le midi aux membres du Saint-James Club et aux clients de l'hôtel. (Crédit photo: Saint-James)
Paris concentre en son sein une poignée de cercles très privés, des associations sous forme de think tanks fondées parfois depuis plus d'un siècle. Royaumes de la cooptation, ces endroits confidentiels où se côtoient hauts dirigeants, noblesse et grands patrons souhaitent conserver leur inconditionnelle exclusivité. Pour espérer y pénétrer, il vous faudra montrer patte blanche. Autrement dit: pouvoir témoigner d'un intérêt certain pour le club convoité, voir sa candidature soutenue par un ou plusieurs parrains et débourser une somme conséquente pour finalement espérer obtenir la précieuse carte de membre.

«La mécanique sociale repose sur une logique d'homosocialité. Rien à voir avec l'orientation sexuelle, l'homosocialité est le fait de se réunir entre ‘mêmes' personnes. Dans un État où est idéalisé l'égalité des genres, des chances, c'est une façon de rétablir des classes», analyse Michaël Dandrieux, sociologue.

«Ces cercles dépassent le simple concept de club. La ségrégation produit de l'inclusion» et des liens puissants entre ceux qui s'y retranchent. L'exclusivité de ces clubs génère aussi du mystère car nul ne sait réellement ce qu'il s'y passe. «Si tout est clair, si tout est su, on élimine le sens de la vie. Il n'y a plus de recherche, plus d'attente, plus d'espoir, plus de société s'il n'y a pas de mystère. Tous les individus lambdas aspirent à un monde secret», ce qui explique la fascination pour ces lieux, continue Michaël Dandrieux, directeur éditorial des Cahiers européens de l'imaginaire .

Fantasmé et a priori impénétrable, ce microcosme se révèle pourtant parfois plus accessible qu'il n'y paraît. S'acoquiner d'un membre ou même se présenter au moment opportun peut suffire à vous faire profiter d'un repas à la table voisine de celle d'un Lagardère. Voici notre sélection:

Le restaurant du Saint-James Paris, gastronomique

Élue meilleur ouvrier de France en 2015, Virginie Basselot est la deuxième femme chef à recevoir ce titre. Elle dirige les cuisines du restaurant gastronomique du Château-hôtel Saint James Paris, fort d'une étoile au Guide Michelin. Pour aller y déguster l'un des mets, une carte de membre ou la réservation d'une chambre sont obligatoires en journée.

Pour entrer au Saint-James Club - qui compte 850 inscrits -, «il convient d'être parrainé par un membre actif, de remplir un dossier de demande d'adhésion et de rencontrer la responsable du lieu, indique Nicolas Egloff, directeur commercial de l'établissement. Les adhésions sont ensuite examinées et éventuellement confirmées par le comité de direction du Club.» Le restaurant et le bar ouvrent toutefois leurs portes au public le soir (à partir de 19 h pour le bar et 19h30 pour le restaurant), ainsi que le dimanche pour le brunch (75 €, de midi à 16 heures). En été, le service s'effectue dans le jardin situé à l'arrière du bâtiment.

Château-hôtel Saint-James Paris, 43, avenue Bugeaud, Paris XVIe.



Le restaurant du Travellers Club, dans un hôtel particulier

L'Hôtel de la Païva se trouve au numéro 25 de l'Avenue des Champs-Elysées (Crédit photo: Wikimedia Commons)
L'Hôtel de la Païva est sans doute l'un des plus beaux hôtels particuliers de Paris. Édifié au milieu du XIXe siècle et aujourd'hui classé monument historique, il se situe au numéro 25 de l'avenue des Champs-Élysées.

Il est depuis 1903 le repaire du Traveller's Club, un cercle ultraconfidentiel d'environ 750 membres triés sur le volet et qui sont principalement des businessmen à succès. On y recense notamment Charles Beigbeder (entrepreneur, homme politique et frère de Frédéric), Jean de Yturbe (HAVAS), Gérard Augustin-Normand (fondateur de Richelieu Finance) et beaucoup d'autres noms à particule.

Le restaurant, réservé aux membres, accepte les invités des adhérents pour déguster la cuisine traditionnelle. Pour obtenir votre carte du club, prévoyez le soutien de deux parrains, qui auront tous deux rédigé à la main une lettre attestant de votre légitimité à rejoindre le cercle. Votre candidature passera ensuite devant les dix membres commissionnés et alors peut-être, moyennant une généreuse donation (1 630 € de droit d'admission), vous aurez entrée libre à l'Hôtel de la PaÏva.Pour les moins aventureux ou les moins introduits, une plus modeste visite des lieux est possible sur réservation.

Traveller's Club, 25, avenue des Champs-Élysées, Paris VIIIe.




Le restaurant de l'Automobile Club de France, place de la Concorde

Plus ancien Automobile Club du monde, il fut créé en 1895, avant même l'invention de la pionnière Ford T. L'Automobile Club de France se réunit dans les salons de l'hôtel Plessis-Bellière, voisin du légendaire Hôtel de Crillon, sur la place de la Concorde, au pied des Champs-Élysées.

La bâtisse du XVIIIe siècle abrite, entre autres, une bibliothèque, un théâtre, une piscine, une salle d'armes et un restaurant. Ce dernier propose une cuisine française et n'est accessible pour un visiteur occasionnel que s'il vient accompagné d'un membre du club. Mieux vaut connaître Nicolas Seydoux (président de Gaumont), Gérard Féau (PDG du groupe Féau Immobilier), Carlos Ghosn (PDG de Renault et Nissan) ou l'un de ses presque 2000 membres, d'autant plus que seuls eux auront le loisir de régler l'addition.

Amateur de grosses cylindrées, un garage débordant des plus beaux bolides de Bugatti, Maserati et Ferrari ne suffiront pas pour décrocher sa carte de membre du très prisé Automobile Club de France. Vous devrez d'abord trouver deux parrains, remplir un dossier de candidature, par la suite examiné par une commission de 21 membres qui statuera ou non de votre admissibilité. Deux chèques de respectivement 3 000 € pour le droit d'admission et 1 850 € pour la cotisation annuelle vous seront finalement réclamés.Mesdames, vous n'êtes pas conviées par la tribu de gentlemen.

Automobile Club de France, 6-8 place de la Concorde, Paris VIIIe.






Le restaurant du Cercle Suédois, vue sur les Tuileries

À deux pas de la place de la Concorde, on accède au Cercle Suédois par les arcades de la rue de Rivoli. Ni enseigne, ni voiturier, seule une petite plaque discrète indique que vous vous trouvez bien au bon endroit.

Depuis 1891, le Cercle Suédois fédère la communauté franco-suédoise dans ses salons à la décoration décalée et un brin surannée. Parmi la liste de ses premiers adhérents figure Alfred Nobel, chimiste originaire de Stockholm et fondateur du prix éponyme.

Face au Jardin des Tuileries, on y déjeune des plats traditionnels suédois - heureusement traduits sur la carte-. En tant que visiteur occasionnel, vous pourrez y venir «deux ou trois fois», puis une carte de membre deviendra indispensable. Pour 340 € l'année, l'accès au restaurant sera illimité et les 10 € ajoutés à l'addition d'un non-membre ne vous seront désormais plus dus. On précise qu'«il vaut mieux connaître un membre actif».


Cercle Suédois, 242, rue de Rivoli, Paris Ier.


Le restaurant du Cercle National des Armées, pour l'élite militaire

La salle de réception du Cercle National des Armées. (Crédit photo: Wikimedia Commons)

Cet imposant immeuble de la place Saint-Augustin accueille le Cercle National des Armées, un lieu très privé où les membres adhérents peuvent profiter de services hôteliers, d'une bibliothèque, de salons de réception ou d'un restaurant baptisé modestement L'Elite.

Thierry Chevalier et Guy Martin (le chef du Grand Véfour) servent une carte gastronomique à un comité de hauts dignitaires de l'armée, d'heureux titulaires de la Légion d'honneur et d'autres personnalités liées de très près à la Défense Nationale.

Un visiteur occasionnel ne peut y accéder sans qu'une réservation ait été effectuée par un membre du Cercle et sans que ce dernier l'accompagne.

Cercle National des Armées, 8, place Saint Augustin, Paris VIIIe.



Le restaurant du Cercle de l'Union Interalliée, en costume cravate

Le Cercle de l'Union Interalliée est situé rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré. (Crédit photo: Wikimedia Commons)
Le Cercle de l'Union Interalliée est situé rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré. (Crédit photo: Wikimedia Commons)
Autre adresse insoupçonnée et inconnue du grand public, le Cercle de l'Union Interalliée, fondée en 1917, se réunit dans l'Hôtel Perrinet de Jars de la rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré, à mi-chemin entre la boutique Hermès et l'Élysée.

Autrefois présidée par le Maréchal Foch, l'Union Interalliée regroupe des personnalités politiques, des fortunés et des influents parmi lesquels Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, Stéphane Bern ou Pierre Assouline. Le Cercle propose plusieurs restaurants dans les différents salons de la bâtisse. En été, des tables se dressent dans le somptueux jardin où sont servis des plats dans le plus grand respect de la tradition française.

Très conservateur, le jean est les affaires de sport y sont totalement prohibées. Si par hasard, l'un des 3 300 membres du club vous convie à un repas, ne faites pas l'impasse sur le port de la veste et de la cravate, au risque de vous faire refouler à l'entrée par un portier intransigeant. Pour intégrer le club, votre admission sera votée par une commission d'admission, après que deux parrains ont soumis votre demande. Les droits d'entrée sont de 4 200 €, assortis d'une cotisation annuelle conséquente. Vous vous en tiendrez sûrement au dîner.

Cercle de l'Union Interalliée, 33, rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré, Paris VIIIe


 ENGLISH TRANSLATION 


These confidential and ultra-private Parisian clubs where the elite are entrenched

They are little known to the general public because a card or sponsor is often required to enter. Sometimes we wait years. Discover the most exclusive clubs in the capital, frequented by the French social elite.

By Edouard Risselet
Published June 12, 2015 at 6:05 PM, updated June 17, 2015 at 11:39 AM
https://www.lefigaro.fr/sortir-paris/2015/06/12/30004-20150612ARTFIG00314-ces-clubs-parisiens-confidentiels-et-ultraprives-o-l-elite-se-retranche.php

 The Star-Spangled Restaurant at the Saint-James Paris Hotel is reserved for Saint-James Club members and hotel guests at lunchtime. (Photo credit: St. James)
Paris has a handful of very private circles, associations in the form of think tanks founded sometimes for more than a century. Kingdoms of co-optation, these confidential places where top executives, nobility and big bosses rub shoulders, wish to retain their unconditional exclusivity. To hope to enter, you will have to show white paw. In other words: to be able to show a definite interest in the coveted club, to have its application supported by one or more sponsors and to pay a substantial sum to finally hope to obtain the precious membership card.

"Social mechanics is based on a logic of homosociality. Nothing to do with sexual orientation, homosociality is the fact of coming together between 'same' people. In a state where gender equality, opportunity is idealized, this is a way of restoring classes," says sociologist Michael Dandrieux.

"These circles go beyond the simple concept of a club. Segregation produces "inclusion" and powerful links between those who retreat into it. The exclusivity of these clubs also generates mystery because no one really knows what is going on there. "If everything is clear, if everything is known, we eliminate the meaning of life. There is no more research, no more waiting, no hope, no more society if there is no mystery. "All ordinary individuals aspire to a "secret world," which explains the fascination for these places, continues Michael Dandrieux, editorial director of the European Books of imagination.

Fantased and apparently impenetrable, this microcosm is nevertheless sometimes more accessible than it seems. Getting in with a member or even showing up at the right time can be enough to make you enjoy a meal at the table next to that of a Lagardère. Here's our pick:

The restaurant of Saint-James Paris, gastronomic

Elected best worker in France in 2015, Virginie Basselot is the second female chef to receive this title. She runs the kitchens of the gourmet restaurant of the Château-Hotel Saint James Paris, with a Michelin star. To go and taste one of the dishes, a membership card or a room reservation are required during the day.

To enter the Saint-James Club - which has 850 members - "it is necessary to be sponsored by an active member, to complete an application for membership and to meet with the manager of the venue," says Nicolas Egloff, the school's commercial director. Memberships are then reviewed and eventually confirmed by the Club's executive committee." However, the restaurant and bar open their doors to the public in the evening (from 7 p.m. for the bar and 7:30 p.m. for the restaurant), as well as on Sundays for brunch (75 euros, from noon to 4 p.m.). In summer, the service takes place in the garden at the back of the building.

Château-hotel Saint-James Paris, 43 Bugeaud Avenue, Paris XVIe.

The Travellers Club restaurant, in a mansion

The Hotel de la Païva is located at number 25 of the Avenue des Champs-Elysées (Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons)
The Hôtel de la Païva is without a doubt one of the most beautiful mansions in Paris. Built in the mid-19th century and now listed as a historical monument, it is located at number 25 avenue of the Champs-Élysées.

Since 1903, it has been the lair of the Traveller's Club, an ultra-confidential circle of about 750 hand-picked members who are mainly successful businessmen. They include Charles Beigbeder (entrepreneur, politician and brother of Frédéric), Jean de Yturbe (HAVAS), Gérard Augustin-Normand (founder of Richelieu Finance) and many other particle names.

The restaurant, reserved for members, accepts guests from members to taste the traditional cuisine. To get your club card, plan the support of two sponsors, both of whom will have handwritten a letter attesting to your legitimacy to join the circle. Your application will then pass in front of the ten members commissioned and then perhaps, with a generous donation (1,630 euros admission fee), you will have free entry to the Hotel de la Paeva.For the less adventurous or the less introduced, a more modest visit to the premises is possible by reservation.

Traveller's Club, 25 Champs-Élysées Avenue, Paris VIII.

The restaurant of the Automobile Club de France, Place de la Concorde

The oldest Automobile Club in the world, it was founded in 1895, even before the invention of the pioneer ford T. The Automobile Club de France meets in the lounges of the Hotel Plessis-Bellière, next door to the legendary Hôtel de Crillon, in place de la Concorde, at the foot of the Champs-Élysées.

The 18th-century building houses, among others, a library, a theatre, a swimming pool, a weapons room and a restaurant. The latter offers French cuisine and is only accessible to an occasional visitor if he comes accompanied by a member of the club. Better to know Nicolas Seydoux (president of Gaumont), Gérard Féau (CEO of the Féau Immobilier group), Carlos Ghosn (CEO of Renault and Nissan) or one of its nearly 2000 members, especially since only they will have the leisure to settle the bill.

A fan of big cars, a garage overflowing with the most beautiful cars of Bugatti, Maserati and Ferrari will not be enough to win his membership card of the popular Automobile Club de France. You will first have to find two sponsors, complete an application file, and then review a 21-member commission that will decide whether or not you will be eligible. Two cheques of 3,000 euros for admission and 1,850 euros for the annual fee will finally be claimed. Ladies, you are not invited by the tribe of gentlemen.

Automobile Club de France, 6-8 Place de la Concorde, Paris VIII.

The restaurant of the Swedish Circle, view of the Tuileries

A stone's throw from the Place de la Concorde, you can access the Swedish Circle through the arcades of Rue de Rivoli. No sign, no valet, only a small discreet plaque indicates that you are in the right place.

Since 1891, the Swedish Circle has united the Franco-Swedish community in its salons with quirky decoration and a bit of an old-fashioned look. Among its first members was Alfred Nobel, a Stockholm-born chemist and founder of the eponymous prize.

In front of the Tuileries Garden, we have lunch of traditional Swedish dishes - fortunately translated on the menu- As an occasional visitor, you can come "two or three times" and then a membership card will become indispensable. For 340 euros a year, access to the restaurant will be unlimited and the 10 euros added to the addition of a non-member will no longer be due to you. It is stated that "it is better to know an active member."

Swedish Circle, 242 Rue de Rivoli, Paris I.

The restaurant of the National Army Circle, for the military elite

The reception room of the National Army Circle. (Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons)

This imposing building in St. Augustine Square is home to the National Army Circle, a very private place where members can enjoy hotel services, a library, reception rooms or a restaurant modestly named The Elite.

Thierry Chevalier and Guy Martin (the chef of the Grand Véfour) serve a gastronomic menu to a committee of senior military dignitaries, lucky legion of honour holders and other personalities closely linked to the National Defence.

An occasional visitor cannot access it without a reservation being made by a member of the Circle and without the member accompanying him.

National Army Circle, 8 St. Augustine Square, Paris VIII.

The reception room of the National Army Circle. (Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons)

This imposing building in St. Augustine Square is home to the National Army Circle, a very private place where members can enjoy hotel services, a library, reception rooms or a restaurant modestly named The Elite.

Thierry Chevalier and Guy Martin (the chef of the Grand Véfour) serve a gastronomic menu to a committee of senior military dignitaries, lucky legion of honour holders and other personalities closely linked to the National Defence.

An occasional visitor cannot access it without a reservation being made by a member of the Circle and without the member accompanying him.

National Army Circle, 8 St. Augustine Square, Paris VIII.

The restaurant of the Circle of the Interallied Union, in a tie suit

The Circle of the Interallied Union is located on Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré. (Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons)

Another unsuspected address unknown to the general public, the Circle of the Interallied Union, founded in 1917, meets in the Hôtel Perrinet de Jars on rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré, halfway between the Hermès boutique and the Élysée.

Formerly presided over by Marshal Foch, the Interallied Union brings together political figures, wealthy and influential, including Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, Stéphane Bern and Pierre Assouline. The Circle offers several restaurants in the various lounges of the building. In summer, tables are set up in the sumptuous garden where dishes are served in the utmost respect for the French tradition.

Very conservative, jeans is sports business are totally prohibited. If by chance, one of the 3,300 members of the club invites you to a meal, do not ignore the wearing of the jacket and tie, at the risk of being turned back at the entrance by an uncompromising doorman. To join the club, your admission will be voted on by an admissions commission, after two sponsors have submitted your application. The entrance fee is 4,200 euros, with a substantial annual fee. You will surely stick to dinner.

Circle of the Interallied Union, 33 rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré, Paris VIII

Saturday 28 December 2019

Tomorrow 21:00 BBC ONE / The Trial of Christine Keeler: Trailer | BBC Trailers




Tomorrow
21:00
BBC ONE
29 December 2019
Series 1 Episode 1 of 6

London, winter 1962. Britain is gripped by the Cuban Missile Crisis, and a series of sex and spy scandals have rocked the British government. Short of money, working-class model Christine Keeler has returned to stage-dancing in Soho’s famous cabaret clubs. Christine lives with her West Indian boyfriend Johnny in a racially tense Notting Hill, and confides in her best friend Mandy Rice-Davies.

It has been over a year since Christine’s secret affair with the married, middle-aged Conservative minister of war, John Profumo. But now Christine is shaken by violent harassment by a West Indian stalker, ‘Lucky’ Gordon, and when Johnny fails to protect her, she considers refuge with her mentor, socialite Dr Stephen Ward. However, Ward is under MI5 surveillance for entertaining a handsome Russian diplomat, and amid delusions of grandeur, he tries to use his establishment links to secure emergency nuclear talks between the US and Russia.

At the same time, Profumo tries to raise his profile to mark the end of UK conscription, and Christine recalls the beginnings of their infamous affair: the fateful weekend they met at twilight by a country manor swimming pool.



The Trial of Christine Keeler is an upcoming British television series based on the chain of events surrounding the Profumo affair in the 1960s. It was ordered to series in October 2017. The series will be adapted by screenwriter Amanda Coe and will star Sophie Cookson, James Norton, Ellie Bamber, Ben Miles, Visar Vishka, Emilia Fox, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett and Anthony Welsh. Keshet International will handle the distribution rights internationally whilst Endeavor Content will hand the distribution rights in the US. The series is due to be broadcast on BBC One, in the United Kingdom from 29 December 2019.



Sophie Cookson as Christine Keeler, a model and a showgirl who becomes entangled in a scandal at age 21, after a series of events involving her two ex-boyfriends Johnny Edgecombe and Lucky Gordon, in combination with MI5's secret service intrigues, combine to publicly reveal two of Keeler's affairs from two years before when she was 19. The two concerned Keeler affairs were both with married men, with Soviet Union naval attaché Yevgeny Ivanov, and with Secretary of State for War, John Profumo, at the height of the Cold War.
James Norton as Stephen Ward, an osteopath who introduces John Profumo to Christine Keeler.
Ellie Bamber as Mandy Rice-Davies, A model, a showgirl and friend of Christine Keeler.
Ben Miles as John Profumo, a Conservative MP and Secretary of State for War who is plunged into a scandal after his affair with Christine Keeler is exposed.
Emilia Fox as Valerie Hobson Profumo, the actress wife of John Profumo.
Nathan Stewart-Jarrett as Johnny Edgecombe, a jazz promoter whose involvement with Christine Keeler inadvertently alerted authorities to the Profumo affair.
Anthony Welsh as Lucky Gordon, a jazz singer who comes to public attention due to his involvement with Christine Keeler.

Friday 27 December 2019

Wallis Simpson: new divorce details revealed in solicitor's notes



Wallis Simpson: new divorce details revealed in solicitor's notes

Robert Egerton recalled case as ‘a judicial farce’ in 47-page private memoir shown to the Guardian

Owen Bowcott Legal affairs correspondent
 @owenbowcott
Sun 22 Dec 2019 12.42 GMTLast modified on Sun 22 Dec 2019 17.50 GMT

Wallis Simpson’s controversial divorce, which freed her to marry Edward VIII, was initially defeated because the hotel chosen for the staged adultery was too exclusive, according to a private memoir.

Papers held by the family of Robert Egerton, a pioneering solicitor involved in the celebrated 1936 case, provide an extraordinary “below stairs” account of what he described as a “judicial farce” during the abdication crisis.

His 47-page portrait of the affair, seen by the Guardian, exposes how the high-society Hotel de Paris in Bray, Berkshire, sacked three of its staff for giving evidence about guests.

Egerton was experienced in what he called the “dirty business” of organising separations under the era’s restrictive divorce laws. By coincidence, his chronicle emerges as parliament is finally due to introduce no-fault divorce through the delayed divorce, dissolution and separation bill.

As a young lawyer, he trained after Cambridge University with the London law firm Theodore Goddard & Co, which represented the American socialite Mrs Simpson in her divorce from her second husband, Ernest Simpson.

Egerton, who later became a leading campaigner for the establishment of legal aid, wrote up his personal reminiscences of the “most famous romance of the century” towards the end of his life.

His involvement, he recalled, began one Friday when he was told to cancel any arrangements he had for the weekend and pack a bag for a “very good hotel”. Mr Simpson, he was told, had taken a room with the “‘woman named’ – the technical description of the woman with whom adultery was alleged in a divorce petition”.

Normally an “enquiry agent” would “call around with photographs, inspect the register and take a statement, which would eventually satisfy the court’s requirements for an unopposed decree nisi.”

In this case, Egerton explained, the “beautifully stage-managed production” at the hotel hit a snag when the staff “refused all cooperation” to the enquiry agent and he “came away defeated”.

The Thames-side Hotel de Paris was renowned for its exuberant cabaret and parties for “Bright Young Things”. As Egerton recorded: “This was one of those expensive hotels which was patronised by society and other wealthy people who did not want the public to know where they were to be found or who their companion was.”

There was, however, “tremendous pressure to get the divorce through without delay and before the self-imposed restraint of British newspapers was abandoned”.

The law firm’s managing clerk, Barron, was swiftly mobilised. When he arrived he met similar resistance from hotel management. Barron demanded to see the hotel register.

“‘We don’t keep a register’, said the manager. ‘You know that you are required by law to keep a register,’ replied Barron, ‘and if what you said is true, you will be convicted of deliberately flouting the law and for an obvious reason which will make an interesting report in the newspapers.’

“Once it had become obvious that publicity of one kind or another could not be avoided, the hotel gave Barron access to the staff and he came away with statements from the hotel porter, a waiter and the floor waiter who had served breakfast in bed to Mr Simpson and a woman who was not Mrs Simpson.”

Desperate to avoid “unsavoury publicity” the Hotel de Paris subsequently sacked the three men, leaving the law firm to pay for accommodation and support for their key witnesses.

Barron and Egerton were dispatched to the Hotel de Paris again “to warn the management … against trying to do anything which would impede the divorce and to impress everyone concerned with the lavish funds which were being generously dispensed to those who aided Mrs Simpson.”

Even then the divorce faced legal challenges. “To keep up the pretence that undefended divorces were not ‘put up’ jobs (which most of them were),” Egerton explained, “the court expected to be assured that the three Cs – connivance, collusion and condonation – were not involved in the case.”

She had to insist she had never misbehaved. “It will surprise many people that Mrs Simpson should have, in effect, denied that she had committed adultery with the King,” Egerton observed.

“… He was passionately in love with Mrs Simpson and, with reckless disregard of the consequences, had secured her company on a cruise and at Balmoral. Who could be blamed for assuming that there had been sexual intercourse?”

Divorce proceedings were fixed for 27 October 1936 at Ipswich assize court. Egerton and Barron collected the three sacked staff and took them to a hotel in Colchester. The night before the hearing, they had to search the town for one of the waiters, who wandered off to find more drink.

Early the next morning, a car collected them and they managed to slip into court unnoticed through a side door. “Theodore Goddard quietly shepherded Mrs Simpson to a seat near the witness box,” Egerton noted, before journalists arrived. The hotel staff gave their “perfectly adequate evidence”.

The judge, Mr Justice Hawke, awarded costs against Mr Simpson but he clearly, Egerton believed, “would have liked to find a way out of presiding over what was palpably a judicial farce.

“He had not liked what he saw of Mrs Simpson in the box, particularly, no doubt, her claim that the chance discovery of her husband’s infidelity had driven her to write [a] legally concocted letter expelling him from their home.”

Theodore Goddard was never knighted. Egerton suggested it was because he was “slightly tainted by the devious measures that had been taken in the course of the divorce”.

Mrs Simpson, he concluded, was “a hard woman”. As lawyers, he added, “we were well aware at the time of the humbug and sleaziness which inevitably result from divorce law.

“They tarnish the grandeur of the fact that a man renounced the world’s greatest privileges and duties for love of a woman but perhaps a great romance has to assume nobility of character which is seldom found in real life.”

Thursday 26 December 2019

Ma’am Darling: 99 Glimpses of Princess Margaret by Craig Brown


She made John Lennon blush and Marlon Brando clam up. She cold-shouldered Princess Diana and humiliated Elizabeth Taylor. Andy Warhol photographed her. Jack Nicholson offered her cocaine. Gore Vidal revered her. John Fowles hoped to keep her as his sex-slave. Dudley Moore propositioned her. Francis Bacon heckled her. Peter Sellers was in love with her. For Pablo Picasso, she was the object of sexual fantasy. “If they knew what I had done in my dreams with your royal ladies” he confided to a friend, “they would take me to the Tower of London and chop off my head!” Princess Margaret aroused passion and indignation in equal measures. To her friends, she was witty and regal. To her enemies, she was rude and demanding. In her 1950’s heyday, she was seen as one of the most glamorous and desirable women in the world. By the time of her death, she had come to personify disappointment. One friend said he had never known an unhappier woman. The tale of Princess Margaret is pantomime as tragedy, and tragedy as pantomime. It is Cinderella in reverse: hope dashed, happiness mislaid, life mishandled.

Combining interviews, parodies, dreams, parallel lives, diaries, announcements, lists, catalogues and essays, Ma’am Darling is a kaleidoscopic experiment in biography, and a witty meditation on fame and art, snobbery and deference, bohemia and high society.



Ma’am Darling: 99 Glimpses of Princess Margaret – review

A thoroughly rotten royal – perhaps matched only by her mother – is laid uproariously bare by Craig Brown

Rachel Cooke
 @msrachelcooke
Sun 17 Sep 2017 06.30 BSTLast modified on Wed 21 Mar 2018 23.50 GMT

What on earth brought on Craig Brown’s intense interest in the Queen’s late sister, Princess Margaret? At the start of his naughty new book about her, he attributes it to Margaret’s Zelig-style appearance – ubiquitous, if not exactly chameleon-like – in just about every other memoir, biography and diary written in the second half of the 20th century. It is, he writes, like playing Where’s Wally? or a super snobby form of I-spy: everyone seems to have met this prickly and parenthetical figure at least once, from Kenneth Williams to Evelyn Waugh, Ken Tynan to Elizabeth Taylor – a fact all the weirder when you know that the same people were often frequently desperate to avoid her.

But perhaps Brown’s obsession has another, more – how to put this? – Freudian source. He dishes up a Margaret-related encounter of his own. At school, he tells us, he had a friend called Michael, the second son of a lord and a nice, diffident chap to whose family houses – among them a castle in Yorkshire and a stately home in Norfolk – he was often invited to stay. It was in the hallway of their grandest place that the incident occurred. Asked to sign the visitors’ book, Brown leafed nosily through it, at which point he discovered a photograph of Margaret, posing in the same hallway in which he stood, resplendent in a blue frock and fixed smile. Beside her was Michael’s older brother, William, looking unremarkable save for one thing. The “downward trajectory” of the fabric of his trousers was, his pal couldn’t help but notice, being “sent askew by a bluff diagonal”. It seemed that at the moment the camera’s shutter clicked, poor William had been struggling to contain a teenage erection.

 When people write of how this or that book made them laugh out loud, I’m suspicious; even in the presence of Pooter or Jim Dixon and his madrigals, my hoots tend to be inward. But as I read Brown’s riff on the unfathomable appearance of this image in a toff family’s social record – “did she [William’s mother] notice that something was awry, but decide to go ahead and paste the whole photograph in regardless – lock, stock and, as it were, barrel?” – I honked so loudly the man sitting next to me on the train dropped his sandwich.

Partly, this was simply because it was funny: never before has a bulge in a pair of chinos been on the receiving end of so searching an analysis. (Brown’s disquisition ranges from the natural reticence of the English upper classes to their stubborn pragmatism in the matter of wasting precious pages in visitors’ books: “They had left a large space… for a photograph of William and Princess Margaret, and they had no alternative detumescent photograph up their sleeves to put in its place.”)

But mostly it was because Ma’am Darling is fascinating. In its tiara-ed grip, I was unbound, released; total absorption left me as wanton and unselfconscious as Tony Armstrong-Jones – AKA Lord Snowdon, HRH’s preening, spiteful husband – after too many martinis. Which was probably just as well, given my head was stuck, for all to see, inside an improbably huge book about Princess Margaret.

Brown has done something amazing with Ma’am Darling: in my wilder moments, I wonder if he hasn’t reinvented the biographical form. Subtitled 99 Glimpses of Princess Margaret, it is described by his publisher (which, infuriatingly, hasn’t given him an index) as “kaleidoscopic”. But this doesn’t do it justice. It is a cubist book, a collection of acute angles through which you see its subject and her world (and, to an extent, our world) anew.

As Brown notes, Margaret wore her rudeness as Tommy Cooper did his fez: it was her trademark – the bitchier of her showbusiness friends actively longed for her to parade it at their parties so that they could roll their eyes afterwards. (“I hear you’ve completely ruined my mother’s old home,” she once said to an architect who’d been working on Glamis Castle. Of the same man, disabled since childhood, she also asked: “Have you ever looked at yourself in the mirror and seen the way you walk?”) But if she is ghastly, her court is worse. The groupies, the servants, the lovers. What a bunch of creeps.

Brown’s 99 glimpses comprise essays, lists, catalogues, diaries, palace announcements, newspaper cuttings and interviews, as well as parodies (one is a pastiche of Lytton Strachey; another echoes Susan Sontag’s Notes on “Camp”; yet another, in which Brown imagines how things might have gone had Margaret married her admirer Picasso, is written in the style of the artist’s biographer, John Richardson).

His reading has been prodigious: not only the diaries of everyone from Chips Channon to AL Rowse, but dozens of gruesome royal biographies and memoirs, up to and including My Life With Princess Margaret by her former footman, the slithering David John Payne. Oh, how the sinister Payne loathes the arrival in Ma’am’s life of the slugabed snapper Armstrong-Jones – a character whom Brown introduces, incidentally, with a list of the contents of his Rotherhithe bachelor pad (golden cage containing three lovebirds; miniature brass catafalque; stand in the shape of a Nubian boy).

Together, these things conjure Margaret in all her dubious glory. Nancy Mitford likened her to a “hedgehog covered in primroses”, but the reader will come to feel this is unfair to hedgehogs. The relationship with Group Captain Townsend is deliciously done: Brown doesn’t buy the schmaltz, lining himself up instead with Prince Philip, who said sarcastically, when the Queen Mother worried about where a future Mrs Townsend might live, that it was “still possible, even nowadays, to buy a house”.

So, too, is the peculiar union with Roddy Llewellyn – “[like] the put upon hero of a picaresque novel”, he writes, Margaret’s hapless young lover having, in quick succession, joined a commune, recorded an album and pranged his Ford Transit. But best of all is his portrait of Snowdon, hair and all, whose baiting of Margaret comes close to gaslighting at times.

What a cast this book has. I cannot say whether I was more fascinated by Jeremy Thorpe’s conviction that he would marry Margaret, or the notion that, in the Mustique years, she frolicked with a criminal, John Bindon, who was said to have been able to either – take your pick – balance a small sherry schooner on or dangle five half-pint glasses off his erect penis.

However peculiar, though, none of these things comes close to the eerie penumbra cast by Margaret herself. How to explain the utter rottenness of her character? In the end, one feels it must go back to her relationship with her mother, the stench of which brings to mind scent left too long in the bottle. As Hugo Vickers, that most smoothly diligent of royal biographers, noted, the Queen Mother’s “demonic” appearance at Margaret’s funeral in 2002 suggested a just hint of triumphalism. Even after she’d decided to cling to her royal privilege, her daughter always had more in common with the Duke of Windsor than ever she realised.




Wednesday 25 December 2019

Queen acknowledges 'bumpy' year as royal family attends Christmas services



Queen acknowledges 'bumpy' year as royal family attends Christmas services

Prince Andrew attends celebrations but not main service, while Queen acknowledges young people’s action on climate crisis

Caroline Davies
Wed 25 Dec 2019 15.10 GMTLast modified on Wed 25 Dec 2019 17.19 GMT

The royal family was out in force in a public show of Christmas unity as the Queen dwelt on the themes of friendship and reconciliation in her annual message and acknowledged a “quite bumpy” path during a turbulent year for both the monarchy and the nation.

The beleaguered Duke of York joined other members of the family for the traditional celebrations at Sandringham in Norfolk in his first appearance since he was forced to step down from official royal duties over his friendship with convicted sex offender, Jeffrey Epstein.

Hundreds of royal fans gathered outside St Mary Magdalene church on the royal estate to watch the royals arrive and depart the main 11am service. The Queen was driven the short distance to the church, accompanied by the Duchess of Cornwall.

Prince Andrew did not attend that 11am service. But before the crowds were allowed in, he was seen walking side by side with his brother Prince Charles to an earlier private 9am service also attended by the Queen and other royals. Andrew’s presence was clear acknowledgement of his family’s firm support following his catastrophic TV interview with Emily Maitlis, and that while he may have withdrawn from public life for the foreseeable future, he very much retains his position as a senior member of the royal family.

Andrew is understood to have made the personal decision to stay with his father while others attended church. Prince Philip, 98, who was discharged from hospital on Christmas Eve after a four-night stay for treatment for an undisclosed “pre-existing condition”, remained at Sandringham House where the royals would later have Christmas lunch.

Andrew’s decision not to attend the main service ensured that the royal family was able to focus attention on images of the Cambridges, attending the Christmas Day service for the first time with their two eldest children, Prince George, six, and Princess Charlotte, four. Before the service, the couple released a new image, showing William with George, Charlotte, and little brother Louis, and taken by Kate at the couple’s Norfolk home, Anmer Hall, earlier this year. After the service, George and Charlotte met members of the crowd, with Charlotte being given a doll by one well wisher.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, and their seven-month-old son, Archie, were absent from the royal festivities, having chosen to spend Christmas at a secret location in Canada with Doria Ragland, Meghan’s mother.

It has been a tumultuous year for the royals, starting with controversy after Prince Philip was involved in a vehicular collision in which two women were injured, and ending with Andrew’s TV interview on his friendship with Epstein, and his denials over allegations he had sex with one of Epstein’s victims, Virginia Roberts, when she was aged 17.

The year also saw the Queen drawn into a constitutional crisis by Boris Johnson over the prorogation of parliament, Meghan’s admission she was struggling with royal life, and Harry appearing to confirm reports the royal brothers were “now on different paths”. The Sussexes are also taking on the press over privacy.

The Queen did not address any of these issues directly in her 68th Christmas broadcast. Rather she cited the example of Jesus, and “how small steps taken in faith and in hope” could often overcome “long-held differences”.

She added: “The path, of course, is not always smooth, and may at times this year have felt quite bumpy, but small steps can make a world of difference.” Her words will be interpreted as an oblique reference to the difficulties her family faced in 2019, as well as the dominant issues of Brexit, a general election and political turmoil endured by the nation.

She acknowledged how young people, who have been inspired by the Swedish schoolgirl activist Greta Thunberg, were taking action on the climate crisis. “The challenges many people face today may be different to those once faced by my generation, but I have been struck by how new generations have brought a similar sense of purpose to issues such as protecting our environment and our climate.”

On a more positive note, she spoke of the birth of baby Archie, as viewers were shown a photograph of him taken shortly after his birth in May. “Two hundred years on from the birth of my great-great grandmother, Queen Victoria, Prince Philip and I have been delighted to welcome our eighth great-grandchild into our family,” she said.

She also reflected on the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landings, and the official ceremonies attended by world leaders, including US president, Donald Trump, the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, and the French president, Emmanuel Macron.

In what will be seen as a comment on Brexit, she spoke of the commemorations of that decisive battle, and seeing “those who had formerly been sworn enemies” coming together and “putting past differences behind them”. She added: “By being willing to put past differences behind us and move forward together, we honour the freedom and democracy once won for us at so great a cost.”

Reflecting on memories of watching Neil Armstrong’s moon landing 50 years ago , she gave his immortal words a fresh equality twist, describing the moment as “a small step for man and a giant leap for mankind – and, indeed, for womankind”. Giant leaps often started with small steps, she stressed.

The pre-recorded broadcast, filmed last week in the green drawing room at Windsor Castle before Philip was helicoptered from Norfolk to the private King Edward VII hospital in London, is likely to have been the most difficult since her “annus horribilis” in 1992. That year saw the break up of three royal marriages, and the row over who would pay for restorations after the Windsor Castle fire.

Photographs chosen to adorn her table included one of her father, George VI. Ahead of Christmas, footage was released of the Queen, Charles, William and George stirring Christmas puddings in Buckingham Palace for the Royal British Legion. The image of a queen and three future kings clearly portrayed the shape of the monarchy ahead as the royal family sees it.

Tuesday 24 December 2019

Season's Greetings

17 DECEMBER 2019
Season's Greetings

A very happy Christmas and holiday season, and best wishes for the New Year from everyone at the Savile Row Bespoke Association.
From top to bottom, Christmas windows and decorations at our members Anderson & Sheppard, Norton & Sons, Huntsman and Richard James.