Last Curtsey

by Fiona MacCarthy

  When the marriage between the Prince and the Princess had evidently reached a crisis, the conventional wisdom amongst those who knew or pretended to know the royal couple was that the troubles would die down or be glossed over. The important thing was to preserve the status quo. A typical insider’s view was that of Woodrow Wyatt writing to John Bowes Lyon in 1992:

  I think they will jog along and at the end they will survive all these difficulties and have a modus vivendi because she is a well brought up girl with proper standards and obviously he is, too. They are not going to do anything which is going to put the crown in danger or become a most fearful scandal.

  A nicely brought up girl was bound to quieten down and compromise. The fascinating thing is that she did not.

  Diana’s gradual emboldening was one of the remarkable turning points in recent memory. The people who had vetted her, approved her ancient lineage and innocently docile personality, had assured themselves of her technical virginity, made certain she was physically equipped to bear the future King of England’s children, indoctrinated her in meek acceptance of her duty in relation to the monarchy and God, were aghast when Diana turned upon them in all her pent-up anger and indignation, first by her collaboration with Andrew Morton in the book Diana: Her True Story, published in 1992, and then in the famous Panorama interview with Martin Bashir in 1995. Among the 22 million people watching her dramatic accusations and disclosures was James Lees-Milne who recorded in his diary:

  An astonishing performance. Never having heard her speak before, I imagined she would be like a silly little debutante. On the contrary, she was adult and articulate. A low, croaky voice slipping into Northolt ‘eows’. Very beautiful, cocking her head to the left, lovely mouth, enormous clear eyes … She didn’t criticise the Prince or Family directly, yet left watchers with no doubt that she hated the lot. Venom visible in every gesture and look. Said they held her to be an embarrassment and danger. I dare say.

  The shock value of the interview lay in its candour, its quite beautiful vulgarity: a princess transformed into an emotionally manipulative media star. The wonder of it was the way she overturned all the decorum and passivity her upbringing and class had battened into her. Perhaps Diana’s Panorama interview marked the final death of the English debutante.

  Select Bibliography

  Nigel Arch and Joanna Marschner, Splendour at Court, Dressing for Royal Occasions Since 1700, 1987

  Margaret Argyll, Forget Not, 1976

  Patrick Balfour, Society Racket, 1933

  Cecil Beaton, Self Portrait with Friends: Selected Diaries 1926–74, 1979

  Mark Bence-Jones, A Guide to Irish Country Houses, 1988

  David Benedictus, The Fourth of June, 1962

  Charlotte Bingham, Coronet Among the Weeds, 1963

  Caroline Blackwood, Great Granny Webster, 1977

  Henry Blofeld, A Thirst for Life, 2000

  Ronald Blythe, The Age of Illusion: Some Glimpses of Britain Between the Wars 1919–1940, 1963

  Elizabeth Bowen, Bowen’s Court, 1942

  Sarah Bradford, Elizabeth: A Biography of Her Majesty the Queen, 1996

  Kate Caffrey, ’37–’39 Last Look Round, 1978

  Beatrix Campbell, Diana, Princess of Wales: How Sexual Politics Shook the Monarchy, 1998

  David Cannadine, The Decline and Fall of the British Aristocracy, 1990 Class in Britain, 1998

  Leonora Carrington, The House of Fear: Notes from Down Below, 1989

  Anne Chisholm, Nancy Cunard, 1979

  Chryssie Lytton Cobbold, Board Meetings in the Bath, 1999

  Diana Cooper, The Rainbow Comes and Goes, 1958

  The Light of Common Day, 1959

  John Cornforth, London Interiors, 2000

  Anne de Courcy, 1939 The Last Season, 1989

  Debs at War 1939-45, 2005

  Marian Crawford, The Little Princesses, 1950

  Quentin Crewe, The Frontiers of Privilege, 1961

  Sarah Curtis (ed.), The Journals of Woodrow Wyatt, 3 vols, 1998–2000

  Leonore Davidoff, The Best Circles. Society, Etiquette and the Season, 1973

  Mark Décharné, King’s Road, 2005

  Terence Dooley, The Decline of the Big House in Ireland. A Study of Irish Landed Families 1860–1960, 2001

  Daphne Fielding, Emerald and Nancy: Lady Cunard and Her Daughter, 1968

  Theodora FitzGibbon, With Love, 1982

  Zia Foxwell, Borrowed Time, 1989

  Jonathan Gathorne-Hardy, The Rise and Fall of the British Nanny, 1972

  Lady Annabel Goldsmith, Annabel: An Unconventional Life, 2004

  Robert Graves, The Long Weekend: A Social History of Great Britain 1918–1939, 1940

  Norman Hartnell, Silver and Gold, 1956

  Teresa Hayter, Hayter of the Bourgeoisie, 1971

  Robert Hewison, Under Siege: Literary Life in London 1939–45, 1977

  Too Much: Art and Society in the Sixties, 1960–75, 1986

  William Douglas Home, The Reluctant Debutante, 1955

  Mr Home Pronounced Hume: An Autobiography, 1979

  Old Men Remember, 1991

  Virginia Ironside, Chelsea Bird, 1964

  Janey and Me, 2003

  Robert Rhodes James (ed.), Chips: The Diaries of Sir Henry Channon, 1967

  Molly Keane, Good Behaviour, 2001

  Betty Kenward, Jennifer’s Memoirs: Eighty-five Years of Fun and Functions, 1992

  Ian Kershaw, Making Friends with Hitler: Lord Londonderry and Britain’s Road to War, 2004

  Angela Lambert, 1939: The Last Season of Peace, 1989

  James Lees-Milne, Ancestral Voices: Diaries 1941–3, 1975

  Prophesying Peace: Diaries 1944–5, 1977

  Caves of Ice: Diaries 1946–7, 1983

  Rosamond Lehmann, Invitation to the Waltz, 1932

  Shaun Levy, Ready, Steady, Go! Swinging London and the Invention of Cool, 2002

  Jeremy Lewis, Playing for Time, 1987

  Lesley Lewis, The Private Life of a Country House (1912–1939), 1980

  Lady Sybil Lubbock, The Child in the Crystal, 1939

  Randal MacDonnell, The Lost Houses of Ireland, 2002

  Sarah Maitland (ed.), Very Heaven: Looking Back at the 1960s, 1988

  Tom Maschler (ed.), Declaration, 1957

  Charles McKean, The Scottish Chateau, 2001

  Jessica Mitford, Hons and Rebels, 1960

  Nancy Mitford, The Pursuit of Love, 1945

  Nancy Mitford and others, Noblesse Oblige: An Enquiry into the Identifiable Characteristics of the English Aristocracy, 1956

  Hugh Montgomery-Massingberd and Christopher Simon Sykes, Great Houses of Ireland, 1999

  Andrew Morton, Diana: In Pursuit of Love, 2004

  John Osborne, Look Back in Anger, 1956

  Mary Pakenham, Brought Up and Brought Out, 1938

  Roy Perrott, The Aristocrats, 1968

  Ben Pimlott, The Queen: A Biography of Elizabeth II, 1996

  Petronella Portobello, How to be a Deb’s Mum, 1957

  Anthony Powell, A Dance to the Music of Time, 12 vols, 1951–1975

  Violet Powell, Five Out of Six, 1960

  Margaret Pringle, Dance Little Ladies: The Days of the Debutante, 1977

  Philippa Pullar, Gilded Butterflies: The Rise and Fall of the London Season, 1978

  Mary Quant, Quant by Quant, 1966

  Simon Raven, The Old School: A Study in the Oddities of the English Public School System, 1986

  The Viscountess Rhondda, This Was My World, 1933

  Sheila Rowbotham, Promise of a Dream: Remembering the Sixties, 2000

  Ianthe Ruthven, The Irish Home, 1998

  The Scottish House, 2000

  Anthony Sampson, Anatomy of Britain, 1962

  Dominic Sandbrook, Never Had it So Good, 2005

  Nancy Schoenberger, Dangerous Muse: A Life of Caroline Blackwood, 2001

  Caroline Seebohm, The Country House: A Wartime History 1939–45, 1989

  Christopher Simon Sykes, The Big Ho
use: The Story of a Country House and its Family, 2004

  Andrew Sinclair, The Breaking of Bumbo, 1959

  My Friend Judas, 1959

  Michael Sissons and Philip French (eds.), Age of Austerity 1945–1951, 1963

  Lavinia Smiley, A Nice Clean Plate: Recollections 1919–1931, 1981

  Godfrey Smith, The English Season, 1987

  Louis T. Stanley, The London Season, 1955

  Roy Strong, Marcus Binney and John Harris, The Destruction of the Country House, 1875–1975, 1974

  A.V. Swaebe, Photographer Royal, 1967

  Laura Talbot, The Gentlewoman, 1952

  Emma Tennant, Girlitude: A Portrait of the 50s and 60s, 1999

  Rebecca Tyrrel, Camilla, 2004

  Evelyn Waugh, Brideshead Revisited, 1945

  The Sword of Honour, 3 vols, 1952–1961

  Loelia, Duchess of Westminster, Grace and Favour, 1961

  A.N. Wilson, After the Victorians, 1901–1953, 2005

  Simon Winchester, Their Noble Lords: The Hereditary Peerage Today, 1981

  Giles Worsley, England’s Lost Houses, 2002

  Peregrine Worsthorne, In Defence of Aristocracy, 2004

  Sources

  PREFACE

  ‘It was such’ – Annabella Scott, conversation with the author, 23 February 2005

  CHAPTER ONE

  ‘flimsy finery’ – The Times, 21 March 1953

  ‘the full perfection’ – E.H. Ruddock, The Common Diseases of Woman, 1888

  ‘the specific, upper-class’ – Jessica Mitford, Hons and Rebels, 1960

  ‘Now darlings, throw out’ – Philippa Pullar, Gilded Butterflies, 1978

  ‘you had to make’ – Lady Clodagh Anson, Victorian Days, 1957

  ‘there was something’ – Lady Sybil Lubbock, The Child in the Crystal, 1939

  ‘After the presentations’ – Betty Vacani, quoted Margaret Pringle, Dance Little Ladies, 1977

  ‘The splendour of the 1930s’ – Margaret Argyll, Forget Not, 1976

  ‘Now, there were’ – Philippa Pullar, Gilded Butterflies, 1978

  ‘The crowning mischief’ – Queen magazine, 1861, quoted Pat Jalland, Women, Marriage and Politics, 1986

  ‘In my humble opinion’ – Betty Kenward, Jennifer’s Memoirs, 1992

  ‘We had to put a stop’ – Thomas Blaikie, You Look Awfully Like the Queen, 2002

  ‘I knew of two peeresses’ – Betty Kenward, Jennifer’s Memoirs, 1992

  ‘will be more’ – Malcolm Muggeridge, New Statesman, 22 October 1955

  ‘“Crawfie”, Sir Henry Marten’ – Lord Altrincham (John Grigg), National and English Review, August 1957

  ‘she carried on’ – Sarah Bradford, Elizabeth: A Biography of Her Majesty the Queen, 1996

  ‘the present age’ – The Times, 15 November 1957

  ‘One girl had drunk’ – Daily Express, 15 November 1957

  ‘INNOCENT DAZZLE’ – New York Herald Tribune, 21 March 1958

  ‘Epitaph for a Deb’ competition – Daily Express, 22 March 1958

  ‘Deb decorum’ – Daily Express, 13 March 1958

  ‘a dainty honey blonde’ – Daily Express, 21 March 1958

  ‘a symbol of loyalty’ – Sketch, 1 January 1958

  ‘a little wobbly’ – Daily Express, 21 March 1958

  ‘I don’t think’ – Daily Express, 21 March 1958

  ‘Goodbye to the Debs’ – Evening Standard, 12 and 13 March 1958

  ‘What’s the new play?’ – William Douglas Home, Mr Home Pronounced Hume, 1979

  ‘very alarming’ – Diana Cooper, The Rainbow Comes and Goes, 1958

  ‘a split second’ – Emma Tennant, Girlitude, 1999

  ‘“SQUASHY” BELCHER’ – Evening Standard, 19 March 1958

  CHAPTER TWO

  ‘Riding’s my hobby’ – Evening Standard, 19 March 1958

  ‘resembling the evacuation’ – Jessica Mitford, Hons and Rebels, 1960

  ‘as fixed’ – Jessica Mitford, Hons and Rebels, 1960

  ‘London season’ – The Times, 24 March 1958

  ‘Penelope Riches’ – Sketch, 12 March 1958

  ‘Miss Lola Wigan’ – Evening Standard, 8 April 1958

  ‘We seemed to fill’ – Margaret Argyll, Forget Not, 1975

  ‘Miss Miranda Smiley’ – Sketch, 12 February 1958

  ‘a strawberry blonde’ – Evening Standard, 8 April 1958

  ‘that large, handsome’ – Evening Standard, 23 June 1953

  ‘There is little’ – Sketch, 12 February 1958

  ‘We used buckets’ – Thalia Stone, conversation with author, 15 March 2005

  ‘the invisible bonds’ – Peregrine Worsthorne, In Defence of Aristocracy, 2004

  ‘cycle is non-U’ – Nancy Mitford, ‘The English Aristocracy’, essay in Noblesse Oblige, 1956

  ‘no girl would willingly’ – Sketch, 12 February 1958

  ‘Caroline has 300’ – Evening Standard, 8 April 1958

  ‘I had enough’ – Evening Standard, 10 May 1958

  ‘I know girls’ – Judith Listowel, ‘The cost of coming out’, Tatler, 9 April 1958

  CHAPTER THREE

  ‘laughing over’ – Sketch, 9 April 1958

  ‘As I listened’ – Antonia Fraser, ‘It’s the Cinderella flavour I remember’, Tatler, 9 April 1958

  ‘Irene Ravensdale’ – Evelyn Waugh, diary 15–16 March 1956, ed. Michael Davie, The Diaries of Evelyn Waugh, 1976

  ‘often studiously’ – Sketch, 21 May 1958

  ‘I also met’ – Tatler, May–June 1958

  ‘the new order’ – The Times, 1 July 1940

  ‘the outside world’ – Lindsay Anderson, ‘Get Out and Push!’, essay in Declaration, 1957

  ‘Are we going to?’ – John Osborne, ‘They Call it Cricket’, essay in Declaration 1957

  ‘Enter James Bond’ – Daily Express, 19 March 1958

  ‘most delightful’ – Sketch, 9 April 1958

  ‘little scarlet gods’ – Andrew Sinclair, The Breaking of Bumbo, 1959

  ‘a good dancer’ – ‘Debutantes Escorts’, Sketch, 4 June 1958

  ‘went into paroxysms’ – Candida Lycett Green, funeral address for Molly Baring, Well Remembered Friends, ed. Angela Huth, 2004

  ‘She was my enemy’ – Auriol Stevens, conversation with the author, 27 February 2005

  ‘Please be kind’ – Elfrida Fallowfield, conversation with the author, 24 February 2005

  ‘at the top’ – Zia Foxwell, Borrowed Time, 1989

  ‘growing up girls’ – Noel Streatfieild, The Years of Grace, 1950

  ‘young marrieds’ – Tatler, 2 April 1958

  ‘his grey suit’ – Daily Express, 22 March 1958

  ‘to exchange’ – Sketch, 19 November 1958

  ‘a sparkling girl’ – Evening Standard, 16 April 1958

  ‘Big thing recently’ – Georgina Milner, notebook entry, April 1958

  ‘the appalling deportment’ – Tatler, 2 April 1958

  CHAPTER FOUR

  ‘looking enchanting’ – Tatler, 14 May 1958

  ‘They are now’ – Sketch, 21 May 1958

  ‘striped awnings’ – Cynthia Asquith, Remember and Be Glad, 1952

  ‘not in our street’ – Virginia Woolf, ‘A Dance in Queen’s Gate’, 1903, ed. Mitchell A. Leaska, A Passionate Apprentice: The Early Journals, 1990

  ‘Though I am’ – Violet Powell, Five Out of Six, 1960

  ‘Walking at 2 or 3’ – Evelyn Waugh, diary entry for 28 June 1956, ed. Michael Davie, The Diaries of Evelyn Waugh, 1976

  ‘all magnificent, gilded’ – Diana Cooper, The Rainbow Comes and Goes, 1958

  ‘All the parties’ – Joyce Phipps, quoted Margaret Pringle, Dance Little Ladies, 1977

  ‘probably at Brook House’ – Margaret Argyll, Forget Not, 1975

  ‘Holland House too’ – Chips Channon, diary entry for 14 October 1940, ed. Robert Rhodes James, Chips: The Diaries of Sir Henry Channon, 1967

&nb
sp; ‘It is sad’ – Chips Channon, diary entry for 2 November 1940, ed. Robert Rhodes James, Chips: The Diaries of Sir Henry Channon, 1967

  ‘Aristocracy no longer’ – Nancy Mitford, Noblesse Oblige, 1956

  ‘It doesn’t happen’ – Evening Standard, 22 May 1958

  ‘the most dazzling’ – Evening Standard, 28 May 1958

  ‘He beamed’ – Evening Standard, 23 May 1958

  ‘two very common’ – Sonia York, 1958 scrapbooks, lent to the author

  ‘Though You’re Only Seventeen’ – Noël Coward, Dance Little Lady, Chappell Music Ltd.

  ‘Byronic youth’ – Cyril Connolly, Enemies of Promise, 1938

  ‘secretly engaged’ – Daily Express, 22 March 1958

  ‘Age Succeeds Class’ – The Times, 16 May 1958

  CHAPTER FIVE

  ‘Hulking young Old Etonians’ – Daily Express, 5 June 1958

  ‘you were going into’ – Henry Blofeld, A Thirst for Life, 2000

  ‘The Tory Ministers’ – Daily Express, 5 June 1958

  ‘We openly’ – Professor Francis Sherlock, essay in The Old School, ed. Simon Raven, 1986

  ‘on trust’ – Henry Blofeld, A Thirst for Life, 2000

  ‘it seemed to me’ – Simon Raven, The Old School, 1986

  ‘whorehouse pink’ – General Eisenhower, quoted Patrick Gale, The Dorchester: A History, privately published, 1990

  ‘What a mixed crew’ – Cecil Beaton, quoted Patrick Gale, The Dorchester: A History, privately published, 1990

  ‘the air of a witches’ lair’ – Christopher McAlpine: A Life, privately published, 2005

  ‘shining ones who dwell’ – John Betjeman, ‘Christmas’, A Few Late Chrysanthemums, 1954

  ‘a dark lilac satin’ – Tatler, 25 June 1958

  ‘Discipline has declined’ – Quentin Crewe, The Frontiers of Privilege, 1961

  CHAPTER SIX

  ‘The Thames’s most social’ – Tatler, 16 July 1958

  ‘Like so many’ – Tatler, 9 July 1958

  ‘I have seen much’ – Chips Channon, diary entry for 7 July 1958, ed. Robert Rhodes James, Chips: The Diaries of Sir Henry Channon, 1967