by Craig Brown
Selected Letters of Raymond Chandler edited by Frank MacShane (Jonathan Cape 1981)
Alfred Hitchcock: A Life in Darkness and Light by Patrick McGilligan (Wiley 2003)
The Raymond Chandler Papers edited by Tom Hiney and Frank MacShane (Hamish Hamilton 2000)
The Oxford Book of American Literary Anecdotes edited by Donald Hall (Oxford University Press 1981)
The Oxford Book of Literary Quotations edited by Peter Kemp (Oxford University Press 1997)
79) Raymond Chandler + Howard Hawks 1944
The Life of Raymond Chandler by Frank MacShane (Hamish Hamilton 1976)
Selected Letters of Raymond Chandler edited by Frank MacShane (Jonathan Cape 1981)
Howard Hawks: The Grey Fox of Hollywood by Todd McCarthy (Grove Press 1997)
The Thirsty Muse: Alcohol and the American Writer by Tom Dardis (Abacus 1989)
80) Howard Hawks + Howard Hughes 1930
Howard Hawks: The Grey Fox of Hollywood by Todd McCarthy (Grove Press 1997)
Howard Hughes: His Life and Madness by Donald L. Barlett and James B. Steele (André Deutsch 1979)
Howard Hughes by Peter Harry Brown and Pat H. Broeske (Little, Brown 1996)
81) Howard Hughes + Cubby Broccoli 1940
When the Snow Melts: The Autobiography of Cubby Broccoli (Boxtree 1998)
Howard Hughes by Peter Harry Brown and Pat H. Broeske (Little, Brown 1996)
Citizen Hughes by Michael Drosnin (Hutchinson 1985)
Howard Hughes by John Keats (Random House 1966)
Howard Hughes: His Life and Madness by Donald L. Barlett and James B. Steele (André Deutsch 1979)
An Autobiography by Jane Russell (Sidgwick and Jackson 1986)
82) Cubby Broccoli + George Lazenby 1965
When the Snow Melts: The Autobiography of Cubby Broccoli (Boxtree 1998)
Interview with George Lazenby on Entertainment Tonight September 1992
83) George Lazenby + Simon Dee 1970
Whatever Happened to Simon Dee? by Richard Wiseman (Aurum 2006)
Obituary of Simon Dee, The Times January 2nd 2004
Obituary of Simon Dee, Independent January 2nd 2004
Brewer’s Dictionary of Rogues, Villains and Eccentrics by William Donaldson (Cassell 2002)
84) Simon Dee + Michael Ramsey 1970
Michael Ramsey: A Portrait by Michael De-la-Noy (HarperCollins 1990)
Michael Ramsey: A Life by Owen Chadwick (Oxford University Press 1990)
Whatever Happened to Simon Dee? by Richard Wiseman (Aurum 2006)
Daily Sketch June 5th 1970
Brewer’s Dictionary of Rogues, Villains and Eccentrics by William Donaldson (Cassell 2002)
85) Michael Ramsey + Geoffrey Fisher 1919
Michael Ramsey: A Portrait by Michael De-la-Noy (HarperCollins 1990)
Michael Ramsey: A Life by Owen Chadwick (Oxford University Press 1990)
Robert Runcie: The Reluctant Archbishop by Humphrey Carpenter (Hodder and Stoughton 1996)
The Macmillan Diaries: The Cabinet Years 1950–1957 edited by Peter Catterall (Macmillan 2003)
Macmillan 1957–1986 by Alistair Horne (Macmillan 1989)
86) Geoffrey Fisher + Roald Dahl 1931
Storyteller: The Life of Roald Dahl by Donald Sturrock (Harper Press 2010)
Boy by Roald Dahl (Jonathan Cape 1984)
Archbishop Fisher: His Life and Times by Edward Carpenter (Canterbury Press 1991)
87) Roald Dahl + Kingsley Amis 1972
Memoirs by Kingsley Amis (Hutchinson 1991)
Storyteller: The Life of Roald Dahl by Donald Sturrock (Harper Press 2010)
Letters to Monica by Philip Larkin, edited by Anthony Thwaite (Faber and Faber 2010)
The New Oxford Book of Literary Anecdotes edited by John Gross (Oxford University Press 2009)
88) Kingsley Amis + Anthony Armstrong-Jones 1959
Memoirs by Kingsley Amis (Hutchinson 1991)
Snowdon: The Biography by Anne de Courcy (Weidenfeld and Nicolson 2008)
Princess Margaret: A Life Unravelled by Tim Heald (Weidenfeld and Nicolson 2007)
89) Lord Snowdon + Barry Humphries 1966
More Please: An Autobiography by Barry Humphries (Viking 1992)
My Life as Me: A Memoir by Barry Humphries (Michael Joseph 2002)
Snake Charmers in Texas: Essays 1980–87 by Clive James (Jonathan Cape 1988)
Dame Edna Everage and the Rise of Western Civilisation by John Lahr (Flamingo 1992)
90) Barry Humphries + Salvador Dalí 1963
More Please: An Autobiography by Barry Humphries (Viking 1992)
My Life as Me: A Memoir by Barry Humphries (Michael Joseph 2002)
The Shameful Life of Salvador Dalí by Ian Gibson (Faber and Faber 1997)
Diary of a Genius by Salvador Dalí (Doubleday 1965)
New York Times
Dirty Dalí: A Private View by Brian Sewell, screened by Channel 4 June 1997
91) Salvador Dalí + Sigmund Freud 1938
The Death of Sigmund Freud by Mark Edmundson (Bloomsbury 2007)
The Shameful Life of Salvador Dalí by Ian Gibson (Faber and Faber 1997)
The Secret Life of Salvador Dalí by Salvador Dalí (Dial Press 1942)
Panorama, BBC 1955
Man with a Blue Scarf: On Sitting for a Portrait by Lucian Freud by Martin Gayford (Thames and Hudson 2010)
92) Sigmund Freud + Gustav Mahler 1910
Gustav Mahler: Memories and Letters by Alma Mahler (second edition, John Murray 1968)
Mahler by Michael Kennedy (J.M. Dent 1974)
Mahler by Kurt Blaukopf (Allen Lane 1973)
Why Mahler? How One Man and His Symphonies Changed the World by Norman Lebrecht (Faber and Faber 2010)
The Life and Work of Sigmund Freud by Ernest Jones (Basic Books 1953–57)
93) Gustav Mahler + Auguste Rodin 1909
The World of Yesterday by Stefan Zweig (Cassell 1953)
The Penguin Book of Art Writing edited by Martin Gayford and Karen Wright (Viking 1998)
Rodin by Frederick V. Grunfeld (Hutchinson 1988)
Gustav Mahler: Memories and Letters by Alma Mahler (John Murray 1946)
94) Auguste Rodin + Isadora Duncan 1900
The Penguin Book of Art Writing edited by Martin Gayford and Karen Wright (Viking 1998)
My Life by Isadora Duncan (Victor Gollancz 1968)
Isadora: The Sensational Life of Isadora Duncan by Peter Kurth (Little, Brown 2001)
Portraits of a Lifetime by J.E. Blanche (1937), quoted in The Faber Book of Art Anecdotes edited by Edward Lucie-Smith (Faber and Faber 1992)
A Book of Secrets by Michael Holroyd (Chatto and Windus 2010)
95) Isadora Duncan + Jean Cocteau 1926
Loving Garbo by Hugo Vickers (Jonathan Cape 1994)
An Impersonation of Angels: A Biography of Jean Cocteau by Frederick Brown (Longmans 1969)
Isadora: The Sensational Life of Isadora Duncan by Peter Kurth (Little, Brown 2001)
96) Jean Cocteau + Charlie Chaplin 1936
An Impersonation of Angels: A Biography of Jean Cocteau by Frederick Brown (Longmans 1969)
Professional Secrets: An Autobiography of Jean Cocteau (Farrar, Straus and Giroux 1972)
Chaplin: His Life and Art by David Robinson (Penguin 2001)
My Autobiography by Charles Chaplin (Bodley Head 1964)
97) Charlie Chaplin + Groucho Marx 1937
Manitoba History No. 16 Autumn 1988
Monkey Business: The Lives and Legends of the Marx Brothers by Simon Louvish (Faber and Faber 1999)
Groucho: The Life and Times of Julius Henry Marx by Stefan Kanfer (Allen Lane 2000)
98) Groucho Marx + T.S. Eliot 1964
The Groucho Letters: Letters from and to Groucho Marx (Michael Joseph 1967)
99) T.S. Eliot + Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother 1943
Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother: The Official Biography by William Shawcross (Macmillan 2009)
Elizabeth the Queen Mother by Hugo Vickers (Hutchinson 2005)
The Diaries and Letters of Harold Nicolson, Volume II: The War Years, 1939–45 edited by Nigel Nicolson (Collins 1967)
The Journals of Woodrow Wyatt, Volume II edited by Sarah Curtis (Macmillan 1999)
The Book of Royal Lists by Craig Brown and Lesley Cunliffe (Routledge and Kegan Paul 1982)
The Spectator Annual edited by Fiona Glass (HarperCollins 1991)
Edith Sitwell: A Unicorn Among Lions by Victoria Glendinning (Weidenfeld and Nicolson 1981)
100) Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother + The Duchess of Windsor 1972
Elizabeth the Queen Mother by Hugo Vickers (Hutchinson 2005)
Behind Closed Doors: The Tragic, Untold Story of the Duchess of Windsor by Hugo Vickers (Hutchinson 2011)
Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother: The Official Biography by William Shawcross (Macmillan 2009)
Point to Point Navigation: A Memoir 1964 to 2006 by Gore Vidal (Little, Brown 2006)
The Duchess of Windsor: The Uncommon Life of Wallis Simpson by Greg King (Aurum 1999)
Redeeming Features: A Memoir by Nicholas Haslam (Jonathan Cape 2009)
Adventures of a Gentleman’s Gentleman by Guy Hunting (John Blake 2002)
101) The Duchess of Windsor + Adolf Hitler 1937
The Heart Has its Reasons by the Duchess of Windsor (Tandem 1969)
The Duchess of Windsor by Michael Bloch (Weidenfeld and Nicolson 1996)
The Duchess of Windsor: The Uncommon Life of Wallis Simpson by Greg King (Aurum 1999)
A Lonely Business: A Self-Portrait of James Pope-Hennessy edited by Peter Quennell (Weidenfeld and Nicolson 1981)
The Book of Royal Lists by Craig Brown and Lesley Cunliffe (Routledge and Kegan Paul 1982)
Hitler’s Table Talk 1941–44 edited by Hugh Trevor-Roper (Oxford University Press 1988)
Harold Nicolson: Diaries and Letters 1930–39 edited by Nigel Nicolson (Atheneum 1966)
The Rise and Fall of the House of Windsor by A.N. Wilson (Sinclair-Stevenson 1993)
Behind Closed Doors: The Tragic, Untold Story of the Duchess of Windsor by Hugo Vickers (Hutchinson 2011)
Redeeming Features by Nicholas Haslam (Jonathan Cape 2009)
Forget Not by Margaret, Duchess of Argyll (W.H. Allen 1977)
Wait for Me!: Memoirs of the Youngest Mitford Sister by Deborah Devonshire (John Murray 2010)
The Way the Wind Blows by Sir Alec Douglas-Home (Collins 1976)
ENDNOTES
1 ‘The flat was all in brown and white, really rather ugly and quite plain,’ wrote Deborah Mitford in her diary on June 7th 1937, after going with her sister Unity and their mother for tea with Herr Hitler.
2 Now the Cuvilliés-Theater.
3 In 1946 he inherits the title Baron Howard de Walden. He dies in 1999, aged eighty-six. Hitler dies in 1945, aged fifty-six.
4 Twain is equally flexible with the truth of stories about other people’s lives. As a young journalist, he regularly makes up stories and puts them in the local newspaper. When someone falls out with his older brother, he gets his own back by writing a story headlined ‘Local Man Resolves to Commit Suicide’.
5 Kipling himself proves less gracious with journalists. Just three years later, in 1892, during his ill-fated time living outside Brattleboro in Vermont, a journalist from the Boston Sunday Herald drops by. The two men have an altercation outside the house. ‘I refuse to be interviewed,’ says Kipling. ‘It is a crime. I never was. I never will be. You have no more right to stop me for this than to hold me up like a highwayman. It is an outrage to assault a man on the public way. In fact this is worse.’
The journalist won’t take no for an answer, and tries every ploy. ‘Mr Kipling, you are a citizen of the world, and you owe it something and it owes you.’
‘Yes, and that little debt has got to be paid me first, and I shall never pay mine.’
‘You were a member of the press, and the profession wants to know what you have to say. You owe it something.’
‘Damn little.’
‘... Why, Mr Kipling, I wouldn’t have missed this interview, to use your favourite word, for anything.’
‘You haven’t got anything anyway.’
‘Oh yes I have. I’ve got enough to tell people to keep away from you.’
‘That’s what I want ... Say I am a boor, for I am, and I want people to learn it and let me alone.’
With that, Rudyard Kipling slams the door.
6 She is, in a way, the Nelson Mandela of her age: however great you are, you can’t feel really good about yourself until you have shaken hands with Helen Keller. Albert Einstein declares himself ‘a great admirer’; Alexander Graham Bell feels that ‘in this child I have seen more of the Divine than has been manifest in anyone I ever met before’; Winston Churchill calls her ‘the greatest woman of our age’; and to H.G. Wells she is ‘the most wonderful being in America’.
7 ‘It is one of the mysteries of our nature that a man, all unprepared, can receive a thunder-stroke like that and live,’ he writes after receiving a telegram saying, ‘Susy was peacefully released today.’
8 She unites both sides in the Cold War: after a sexually explicit production of Phaedra, her work is condemned as ‘pornographic’ in the House of Representatives, and in the Soviet Union she is attacked as a disturbing influence on the young.
9 Their respect was, eventually, mutual. Before she died, Martha Graham expressed her approval of Madonna’s performances: ‘She is naughty and dares you to react. But she only puts onstage what most women hide, and yes, it may not be respectable ... Respectable! Show me any artist who wants to be respectable.’
10 ‘A Ceremony on the S. Lawn to honor young Michael Jackson who is the sensation of the pop music world – believed to have earned $120 mil. last year,’ writes Reagan in his diary that evening. ‘He is giving proceeds from one of his biggest selling records to the campaign against drunk driving ... He is totally opposed to Drugs & Alcohol & is using his popularity to influence young people against them. I was surprised at how shy he is.’
Twenty-five years later, when Jackson dies, an autopsy reveals traces of lidocaine, diazepam, nor-diazepam, lorazepam, midazolam and ephedrine in his blood. The cause of death is given as ‘acute propofol intoxication’. Propofol is an anaesthetic generally employed in major surgery. A total of thirteen puncture wounds are discovered on Jackson’s neck, both arms, and both ankles.
11 The fault is probably mutual. ‘She was full of complexities and contradictions,’ a longtime friend of Jackie Kennedy tells her biographer. ‘There was a great sense of competition and hostility. Taking people up, making much of them, then a drop and no one ever knew why.’
12 He gives the newlyweds a painting of the bride by himself. Another work of art – a sculpture – is a gift from Kurt Waldheim. ‘It was really ugly,’ notes Warhol. He also notes that ‘Watching this story book wedding, you just wonder about what it’ll be like when the divorce comes.’
13 Jackie is particularly gratified when de Gaulle replies to her thank-you letter to him ‘promptly and at length’, while her husband’s goes unanswered.
14 The Duchess of Devonshire is given pride of place at Kennedy’s inauguration. ‘Our fast young sister went over that ocean & had loving tete a tetes with your ruler,’ writes her sister Nancy. ‘Andrew [Duke of Devonshire] says Kennedy is doing for sex what Eisenhower did for golf.’
15 Always an unwise move.
16 On French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s state visit to Britain in March 2008, he asks the Queen whether she ever gets bored. ‘Yes, but I don’t say so,’ she replies.
17 ‘I have worked out that with average luck, we should, at the end of 1969, be worth about $12 million between us. About $3 million of that is in diamonds, emeralds, property, paintings, so our annual income will be in the region of ½ million,’ Burton writes in his diary.
18 After the Duchess’s death, Taylor buys it at auction for $449,625, bidding
over the telephone while sitting by her swimming pool. ‘All along I knew my friend the duchess wanted me to have it,’ she tells the press, pointing out that ‘it’s the first time I’ve ever had to buy myself a piece of jewellery.’
19 To journalist Kevin Sessums when he interviews her in 1997 for a magazine for people living with AIDS, prefacing her remarks with, ‘I’m going to tell you something, but it’s off the record until I die. OK?’
20 Guinness is received into the Catholic Church less than a year later, in April 1956.
21 Victoria Glendinning identifies this lady as Evelyn Weil, and the Portuguese poet mentioned later as Alberto de Lacerda.
22 Later, he writes to Edith Sitwell, thanking her for choosing him as her sponsor. ‘I thought your circle of friends round the table remarkably typical of the Church in its variety and goodwill ... I liked Alec Guinness so much and will try to see more of him. I have long admired his art.’ He goes on to warn her that among her fellow Catholics she must expect to find ‘bores and prigs and crooks and cads’.
23 Waugh is always very particular about food. Before going to bed that night, he sends £2 to the chef at the Grand Hotel, along with a note demanding that all the dishes for him must be cooked specially, never just kept warm.
24 For Mr Pinfold, ‘the tiny kindling of charity which came to him through his religion, sufficed only to temper his disgust and change it to boredom’.
25 ‘If he was accused of some quality usually regarded as contemptible ... he studied it, polished up his performance, and, treating it as both normal and admirable, made it his own’ – Frances Donaldson.
26 The story does the rounds of Stokowski saying, ‘Why don’t we do Sacre?’, to which Disney replies, ‘Sock? What’s that?’ But a correspondent to the New York Times in 1990 points out that a stenographer was present at the meeting between Stokowski and Disney on September 13th 1938, and this snippet of dialogue is nowhere in the transcript.