Colonel Philip Parbury 1910–88 Born in Australia where he returned after the war. He married Eileen Sybil Phipps in 1948 after having been engaged to her and Anita at the same time. His bravery during the war – he was mentioned in despatches and awarded the dso in 1947 – is at odds with his bewildering, dishonest and despicable behaviour after it, which, at one point, involved him faking a broken leg.
Colonel Paul Rodzianko cmg 1880–1965 Ukrainian landowner and soldier until dispossessed after the 1917 Russian Revolution. During the First World War he’d been an officer in the Tsar’s Imperial Guard and had been married to Tamara Novosiloff, a maid of honour to the Russian empress, and may possibly have had a second wife too. In 1928 he was the instructor of the Irish Equitation School and seems to have first met Anita in 1934. Her grandmother, Leonie Leslie, called Paul ‘the nhb’ – the noisy, hungry bore. Knowing that she was making a catastrophic mistake, Anita married him in 1937 and joined the mtc in order to escape him; not a very successful ploy since he managed to follow her to South Africa and the Middle East, only thwarted when she was sent to Italy. He denied Anita a divorce for many years but she was finally granted one in 1948. He subsequently married Joan Freeman Mitford, widow of Guillermo de Udy.
Clare Sheridan 1885–1970 Tempestuous doesn’t begin to describe Anita’s sculptor cousin, daughter of the dodgy financier Moreton Frewen, nicknamed ‘Mortal Ruin’, who was married to Jennie Churchill’s sister Clara. Although Anita in her biography Cousin Clare (1976) depicts King Milan of Serbia as Clara’s devoted admirer, he was probably Clare’s father. Anita also bathes Clare’s short-lived marriage to Wilfred Sheridan, who was lost in battle in 1915, in a rosy light. Clare herself, in her memoir Nuda Veritas (1927), writes that she realized early in her marriage that Wilfred didn’t approve of her becoming a sculptor or indeed working at all while she herself thought that work was the most satisfying thing in life and children the least. Her lovers included Charlie Chaplin, Lord Birkenhead and Lev Kamenev, Trotsky’s son-in-law and a high-ranking Soviet functionary, a list that reads like the characters in a Tom Stoppard play.
Colonel Peter Wilson 1894–1975 Of all the Mr Wrongs with whom Anita was involved, Peter was probably the most misbegotten. They met in 1943, and, although Peter loved Anita devotedly for many years, he also wanted to control her life, including persuading her into unwanted pregnancies that couldn’t be sustained. Their post-war life at Oranmore Castle was fraught but in 1949 he gave her the greatest gift she could imagine: her son Tarka, although due to the complications which were always part of Anita‘s life, his birth and parentage had to be kept secret. It’s extraordinary that Anita and Peter’s relationship survived so much bruising, but it did. He died, married to someone else, near to where Anita lived in Oranmore, in a house which she had chosen for him.
Anita’s Houses
Brede Place, East Sussex A fourteenth-century manor house described by Sir Edwin Lutyens as the most interesting and haunted inhabited house in Sussex. It was bought by Moreton Frewen, Clare Sheridan’s father, in 1898 and Clare was brought up there. Her mother Clara spent years of her life restoring the house and creating the garden, and her ghost is one of many said to haunt the house. Her appearances are marked by wafts of the violet scent she used to wear. Clare visited Brede often when her nephew Roger Frewen owned the house, and created several sculptures there.
Frampton Court, Dorset Owned by various members of the Sheridan family including Clare’s son, Richard, who was born at Frampton in 1932. Built by Robert Brown in 1704 on the site of an ancient priory, in 1790 the park was laid out by Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown. The house carried a curse in response to Henry viii’s expulsion of the priory’s monks. The curse decreed that no firstborn son would inherit and live. Clare urged Richard to sell Frampton but the estate failed to find a buyer. Unbeknown to Clare, Richard held on to a single acre where a relative was buried. Touring France on his twenty-first birthday, he died suddenly of peritonitis.
Glenveagh Castle, Co. Donegal Large castellated mansion built in about 1870. Bought by Henry McIlhenny of Philadelphia – the only glamorous inhabitant there, according to Andy Warhol – in 1938. The glamorous Mr McIlhenny was very rich; previous McIlhennys had invented the gas meter and Tabasco sauce. Henry had a dazzling art collection, including paintings by Stubbs and Landseer, and created a lush garden on the estate of 40,000 mountainous and wooded acres. Anita, Bill and Tarka visited Glenveagh every September to cull the herd of red deer. Henry gifted the estate to the Irish nation and moved back to Philadelphia where he died in 1986.
Castle Leslie, Glaslough, Co. Monaghan Seat of the Leslies since 1665. Built by Sir John Leslie, 1st Baronet and a Member of Parliament, in 1870 on the site of an earlier castle. It has three lakes, extensive woodland and a Renaissance-style cloister. As a child, Anita loved Glaslough and begged her parents to allow her to spend all her school holidays there. She and Bill took over the running of the estate after the war but were persuaded by Desmond to hand over the ownership, something she regretted for the rest of her life. She spent most of the money she earned from her books buying Glaslough farmland for her son Tarka, leading to family feuds. As in so many Irish houses, Castle Leslie was prone to spooky goings-on. When Winston Churchill (a Leslie nephew) died, crashes and bangs in the loft, mysterious footsteps in the west wing and Leonie Leslie’s familiar fingertip drumming were heard. The estate was on the border between the North and the Irish Republic. In 1980 during the Troubles, after three men were shot dead within a mile of the house, Anita wrote to her stepmother Iris that Glaslough had become ‘the most dangerous place in Europe’.
Oranmore Castle, Co. Galway On the site of a Norman keep beside Galway Bay. Dating from the fifteenth century, it may have been built on the site of an older castle. From the seventeenth century it was owned by the Blakes, one of Galway’s twelve tribes. The tower, which is half the height of the castle, and the adjoining house were ruinous when Marjorie Leslie, assisted by her friend the lawyer and writer Oliver St John Gogarty, bought it for £200 for her daughter Anita who, after the war, had decided that she wanted to live in the west of Ireland. In spite of the castle’s eight-foot-thick walls, George Jellicoe, visiting Anita in 1948, complained that the sea came through the windows. Attractively renovated, Oranmore is now the home of Anita and Bill’s daughter Leonie and her husband, the musician Alec Finn.
A Note on the Author
Penny Perrick, who lived for many years in the West of Ireland, was a fashion editor for Vogue, a columnist on the Sun and The Times and a fiction editor for the Sunday Times. She is also a novelist and the author of Something to Hide, a biography of the poet Sheila Wingfield. She now lives in London.
Index
Abercorn, Kathleen, Duchess of here, here, here, here, here
Acton, Harold here
Adams, Gerry here
Adamski, George here
Adorno, Theodor here
Aimée, Anouk here
Aitken, Penelope here
Alexander, General Harold (Viscount Alexander) here, here, here, here, here, here, here
Aly Khan, Prince here, here, here
Almond, Marc here
Amies, Hardy here
Amis, Kingsley here
Andrews, Allen here
Angier, Carole here
anti-Semitism here, here, here, here, here, here, here
Arias, Roberto (Tito) here
Ashley, Lady here
Asquith, Cynthia here
Asquith, H.H., here
al-Assad, Hafez here
Astor, Gavin here
al-Atrash, Amal (Asmahan) here, here
Attila the Hun here
Attlee, Clement here, here
Auchincloss, Janet here
Auden, W.H., here here
Aylesford, Lady here
Baker, Josephine here
Baker, Prim, see Wilson, Prim
Bankhead, Tallulah here, here
Banville, John here
/> Baruch, Bernard (Barney) here, here, here, here, here
Baryshnikov, Mikhail here
Bassano, Jacopo here
Battle of Britain here
Beit, Sir Alfred here
Beit, Lady Clementine here, here
Bellew, Geraldine here
Bell-Syer, Michael here, here
Bell-Syer, Rose, see Gardner, Rose
Belmore, Lord here
Bence-Jones, Mark here, here
Bernelle, Agnes, see Leslie, Agnes
Bernstein, Sidney here
Beuret, Rose here
Bevan, Natalie here, here
Bibesco, Marthe here
Bibesco, Princess Priscilla here
Birkenhead, Lord here, here
Birley, Lady here
Blount, Father here
Boscowen, Evelyn here
Boucher, Alfred here
Bowen, Elizabeth here, here
Boyd, William here
Brazil, Angela here
Breteuil, Comtesse Elizabeth de here
Bridge, Philippa here
British Horse Society here
British Union of Fascists (BUF) here, here
Brooke, General Alan here
Brooke, John (Viscount Brookeborough) here
Brummel, Beau here
Burgh, Alexander (‘Alkie’), Lord here, here
Burgh, Anita here, here, here, here, here
Burgh, Rose, see Gardner, Rose
Butler, Hubert here
Butler, Miss here
Byrne, Gay here
Byron, Lord here
Callaghan, James here
Caprilli, Captain here
Carleton, Guy here
Carter, Jimmy here
Casey, Bishop Eamon here
Cassels, Richard here
Catholic Truth Society of Ireland here
Catroux, General Georges here
Chaplin, Charlie here, here
Chapman, Lady Pauline here
Charles II, King here
Charles, Prince of Wales here, here
Chester, Geoffrey here
Chichester, Francis here, here
Chichester, Sheila here, here
Christie, Harold here
Churchill, Clementine here, here, here, here, here, here, here
Churchill, Diana, see Sandys, Diana
Churchill, Jennie here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here
biographies here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here
Churchill, John Strange (Jack) here, here
Churchill, Mary, see Soames, Mary
Churchill, Peregrine here, here
Churchill, Lord Randolph here, here, here, here, here
Churchill, Randolph here, here, here, here, here, here
biography here, here, here, here
Churchill, Sarah here
Churchill, Winston here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here
and alliance with Russia here
Anita visits here
awarded Nobel Prize here
death and funeral here
and Diana Mosley here
and Jennie Churchill biographies here, here
and Leonard Jerome biography here, here, here
and Nazi murder of Jews here
and post-war elections here, here, here
publishes Closing the Ring here
publishes Marlborough here, here
and rise of Nazism here, here
and Second World War here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here
Sutherland portrait here
Churchill, Winston S., here, here
Claudel, Camille here
Cleary, Father Michael here
Cleeve, Brian here
Coats, Betsan (née Horlick) here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here
Coats, Christopher here, here
Coats, John here, here
Cochran, C.B., here
Cockran, Anne Bourke (née Ide) here, here, here, here, here, here, here
Cockran, Bourke here, here
Collins, Michael here, here
Columbus, Christopher here
Connaught, Arthur, Duke of here
Connery, Sean here
Cooper, Lady Diana here, here
Corvo, Joseph here, here
Costello, Elvis here
Coward, Noël here, here, here, here
Craig, Maurice here, here
Crawley, Aidan here, here
Crawley, Virginia here, here
Crawshay, Mary (née Leslie) here
Crowley, Jeananne here
Crown and Shamrock here
Crowther, Peter here
Cunningham, Bill here, here
Cusack Smith, Mollie here, here, here, here, here
Cusack Smith, Oonagh Mary here
Daly, Diana here, here
Darrell, Elizabeth here
Dawson-Damer, George here
Dayan, Yael here
de Barros, Leonie here, here
de Choiseul, Claire here
De Dannan here, here, here, here
de Gaulle, General Charles here, here, here, here, here
de l’Espée, Jeanne here, here, here
de Lattre de Tassigny, General Jean here, here
de Trafford, Father here
de Valera, Éamon here
de Waal, Edmund here
de Walden, Lord Howard here
Deidda, Italo here
Devonshire, Georgiana, Duchess of here
Diana, Princess of Wales here
Dick-Read, Dr Grantly here
Doctorow, E.L. here
Dugden, Colonel Joe here, here
Dunn, Jimmy here
Dunsany, Lord and Lady here
Duoro, Marquis of here
Eastern Times here, here, here, here
Eden, Anthony here, here, here
Edward VII, King here, here
Edward VIII, King (Duke of Windsor) here, here
Eisenhower, General Dwight D. here
El Alamein, Battle of here, here
Elizabeth II, Queen here, here
Elizabeth, Queen, the Queen Mother here, here
Elliott, John Nicholas Rede here
Enever, Barbara here
Epstein, Jacob here
Eustis, Mrs here
Fairbanks, Douglas here
Falmouth, ‘Star’, here, here
Farouk, King here
Fay, Monsignor Cyril here
Fillis, James here
Finn, Alec here, here
Finn, Cian here
Finn, Heather here
Finn, Jessica here, here
Finn, Leonie (née King) here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here
adolescent revolt here, here
artistic career here, here, here, here, here
dedicatee of Edwardians book here
marriage here
married life here, here, here, here, here
and Tarka’s paternity here
Fitt, Gerry here
Fitzgerald, F. Scott here
Fitzgerald, Garret here
Fitzherbert, Maria here, here, here, here
her tiara here, here, here, here
Fleming, John here
Fonteyn, Margot here, here
Foot, Michael here
Foot, M.R.D., here
Fortescue, Lilah here
Foster, Sir John here
Foster, R.F., here
Fox, Charles James here
Franco, General Francisco here
Frankfurter, Felix here
Frazer, Iris, see Leslie, Iris
French Revolution here
Frewen, Clara (née Jerome) here, here, here, here
Frewen, Clare, see Sheridan, Clare
Frewen, Hugh here
Frewen, Moreton here, here, here, here, here
Frewen,
Roger here, here, here, here, here, here
Frewen, Xandra, see Roche, Xandra
Gaelic League here
Gailey, Elspeth here
Galsworthy, John here, here
Galway Blazer here, here, here
Galway Blazer II here, here, here, here
Games, Abram here
Gardner, Fleur here, here, here, here, here, here, here
Gardner, Peter here, here, here, here, here, here, here
Gardner, Rose (née Vincent) (formerly Burgh) here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here
and Anita’s post-war life here, here, here, here, here, here
and Bill King marriage here, here, here
drug addiction and death here, here, here, here, here
second and third marriages here, here, here, here
and Second World War here, here, here, here, here
Gary, Romain here
George IV, King here
George V, King here
George VI, King here
Gilbert, Martin here, here
Gillespie, Dr here, here
Gillray, James here
Glendinning, Victoria here
Glynn, Margaret here
Goebbels, Joseph and Magda here
Gogarty, Oliver St John here, here
Golding, William here
Gopnik, Adam here
Graves, Robert here
Grosvenor, Gerald here, here
Grosvenor, Sally here
Gruss, General here
Guinness, Bryan here
Guinness, Diana here, here
Guinness, Grania here, here
Guthrie, Olive (née Leslie) here, here
Gwyn Jones, Tim here
Hammond, David here
Hare, David here
Harper’s Bazaar here
Harris, Harold here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here
Hastings, Max here, here
Haughey, Charles here, here, here
Hauk, Minnie here
Heaney, Jack here
Heath, Edward here, here
Hempill, Anne here
Henry VIII, King here
Hitchcock, William here
Hitchens, Christopher here
Hitler, Adolf here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here
Holberton, Betty here, here, here
Holloway, David here
Holroyd, Michael here, here
Holtzmann, Fanny here
Hopkins, Gerard Manley here
Hore-Belisha, Leslie here
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