Tackling the art world, page 22
Go West, page 25
Delphi’s debut, page 50
Feeling haute, haute, haute, page 40
The ultimate embarrassing parent? Page 20
Tatler contents 16 20
22 25 4
BYSTANDER Leaders of the pack Society’s smartest bridge clubs Daddy cool My father, the polo-playing Argentine rogue and raconteur Luis Basualdo. By Charlotte Pearson Methven Super Maro Rugby player Maro Itoje tackles the role of art curator Meals on wheels Martha West’s stint as a
lockdown delivery cyclist in London 30 Million dollar baby Kinvara Balfour imagines the La-La lifestyle awaiting Lilibet Diana Mountbatten-Windsor, Meghan and Harry’s daughter 35 Global gardening In the Cotswolds, Sezincote has an echo of distant lands 37 Wagyu doin’? Fay Maschler finds a delicious slice of Japan in Fitzrovia
38 Hands, mace, space A scaled-down State Opening is the order of the day in parliament 40 Little Miss Sunshine Sabine Getty’s hot tips for stylish summer dressing FASHION 42 Just good trends What to wear right now 46 Northern lights
the hotspots and fashion favourites of Yorkshire 48 All that glitters A new photography exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery in Chelsea celebrates Cartier’s greatest hits 70 Catwalk to boardwalk Breezy, beautiful looks to wear this summer
Chandler Tregaskes discovers TATLER
Notes on a scandal, page 80
Coasting along, page 70
Dear diary, page 88
Contents
Trouble in the ranks, page 62
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The Racer Also Rises Twenty-one years ago, I hit the wall at more than 200 mph during race practice. Paralyzed from the shoulders down, I never thought I could feel freedom again. Then Arrow Electronics helped me design a car I now race in, using only my head. Next, we are working on a smart exoskeleton suit that helps me – and others like me – rise. And walk. – Sam Schmidt IndyCar team owner and former IndyCar racer
Watch us in action at the 2021 Goodwood Festival of Speed in England. Find out more at arrow.com/goodwood
Tatler contributors Martha West
Charlotte Pearson Methven In this issue, Charlotte Pearson Methven pays tribute to her late father, the Argentine playboy, polo pro and erstwhile presence in the society gossip columns, Luis Basualdo. Charlotte’s fondest memories include seeing Buenos Aires through her father’s eyes while travelling around the city and attending the Argentine Open polo finals. ‘He was in his element; he knew everyone and was loved by all.’ What does she miss about him the most? ‘His wonderfully self-deprecating sense of humour and love of the finer things in life.’
Sixty years since the Profumo affair rocked the nation, Natalie Livingstone reflects on where it all began – at Cliveden House, owned by her husband and his brother. ‘Cliveden is magic – the vista, the architecture, the gardens,’ she says. Natalie is the author of The Mistresses of Cliveden and chairman of the Cliveden Literary Festival, set to run in October. Cliveden has long been a magnet for the elite and ‘history is at the heart of its allure’, Natalie says. ‘I would have enjoyed meeting Nancy Astor. I doubt she would have had much time for me.’
Poppy Evans
Sharan Pasricha In this month’s travel pages, Ennismore founder Sharan Pasricha (pictured above with his wife, Eiesha Bharti Pasricha) writes Tatler a postcard from Scotland. ‘The first thing you fall in love with is the outdoors,’ he says. ‘When you live in the city, there is no better contrast.’ He is eagerly awaiting the opening of his Gleneagles Townhouse in Edinburgh – ‘one of my favourite cities, with that beautiful countryside a stone’s throw away’. 12
Natalie Livingstone
Creative producer Poppy Evans travelled to Scotland for this issue’s cover shoot with Delphi Primrose. ‘We were lucky to have such a beautiful location,’ says Poppy. ‘Delphi was a natural in front of the camera and had the confidence of someone who had been modelling for years.’ The trip offered a welcome respite from remote working: ‘I miss the energy of the creative process, which normally happens in person.’ TATLER
PHOTOGRAPHS: CLIVEDEN LITERARY FESTIVAL AND THE ARTS CLUB; COURTESY OF CHARLOTTE PEARSON METHVEN; JUSTIN POLKEY; ROSS GILMORE/GETTY IMAGES. MARTHA WEST WEARS SHIRT, £690, JACKET, £2,820, AND TROUSERS, £1,940, BY GUCCI. VINTAGE NECKLACE, £1,395, BY SUSAN CAPLAN
In this month’s issue, Martha West recalls her experience of working as a delivery cyclist in London during lockdown. ‘If it’s balmy weather, being able to cycle in the evening sunshine, singing along to Princess Nokia, is fun,’ says Martha, who is following in her father Dominic West’s footsteps and becoming an actor, while also starting to write full-time. Who would her dream delivery customer be? ‘The only famous person from my area in Peckham is John Boyega. I’m a big fan and I bet he’d tip well – he seems like a top gent,’ she says. ‘Sadly, he’s probably ordering a takeaway in Hollywood or somewhere now.’
Love the mix. S M O O T H M E E T S C R U N C H Y. TRY THE NEW DUO!
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BRIDE AND GROOMED
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GOSSIP GIRL IS BACK
A who’s who of the new kings and Raver, rocker or TikTok teen bopper queens of New York’s social scene in – which festival tribe will you be HBO Max’s reboot of the hit TV show joining this summer?
ROYALLY HOT EURO STYLE
A fashion spotter’s guide to Europe’s chicest royals, including Princess Christian of Hanover
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SOANE RANGERS
Why design lovers still hanker after the classical style of Sir John Soane and his contemporaries
PHOTOGRAPHS: ALEJANDRA ORTIZ/CASA DE ALBA/EFE; EUROPA PRESS/EUROPA PRESS VIA GETTY IMAGES; GARETH GARDNER; MATT CARDY/GETTY IMAGES; MEGA/GC IMAGES
2021’S FESTIVAL TRIBES
The Count of Osorno and Belén Corsini on their wedding day at Liria Palace in Madrid in May
FELINE FINE
ILLUSTRATION: GEORGES BARBIER, ARCHIVES CARTIER PARIS © CARTIER
Lady with Panther by George Barbier for Cartier, 1914. The Cartier panther is prowling into Chelsea this month with a dazzling photography exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery. See page 48
TATLER
SOCIETY
Aliotto della Gherardesca Florence St George
Courtney Dailey Mary Keswick
Building bridges It’s fiendish and sweeping smart society once more, but locking down your partner is key. Who’s game for bridge? By MATTHEW BELL
THER E COMES A TIME – generally at about half past eight in the evening – when one can’t be bothered to talk any more. You have chatted over cocktails and sat through dinner, but it’s still too early to escape to bed. Bridge, which has enjoyed a quiet resurgence during the pandemic, was invented for this moment. It allows you, as you re-enter the drawing room, to seek refuge in a fourseater bubble where conversation is optional, not expected. Yet you know, as you take your place and meet your partner, that you are not going to be bored. Cards are dealt, brandy poured. Soon, you are counting your points and weighing up your hand. You have entered a world where a queen can ruin you and where a lone knave is your best friend. Bridge is difficult. It is complicated to explain. Its codes and rules can seem totally baffling to the newcomer. In that sense, the game is like racing or sailing – a parallel universe with its own language and protocols and conventions that can take years to learn. But that is the joy of bridge: however much you play, you will never completely master it. Every hand you are dealt is a fresh start, a fiendish new challenge. ] 16
New generation Despite bridge’s grey-haired reputation, a new troupe of young things is mad for the game. In the case of some, such as Mary Keswick and Zain Mahmood, who learnt from their parents, the obsession is hereditary. Isaac Ferry is a fiendish card player, and Flea St George likes to play online on Funbridge.com.
Isaac Ferry Chris Holcroft Zain Mahmood
Margherita della Gherardesca
TATLER
SOCIETY
Catharine Snow
Sibylla Whitmore
Princess Dora Loewenstein
Mustique
Carole Skinner
Blue-blooded Dora invites her close-knit group of bridge-playing girlfriends (most of them taught by bridge instructor Zebedee Stocken) to her house on Mustique. The games have been known to begin in the airport lounges. Once on the island, long games are punctuated with rum punch and tennis.
Rose Hulse
Notting Hill and Regent’s Park
David Keswick Samantha Keswick
There’s nothing Samantha and David Keswick (in Notting Hill) and George and Rose Hulse (Regent’s Park) love more than meeting up for supper and bridge. The Keswicks, taught by bridge guru Andrew Robson, battle it out with the Hulses, who learnt how to play at the MCC Bridge Society. Samantha’s homemade margaritas keep the games going.
George Hulse
TATLER
17
SOCIETY
18
Mamoun Askari
Zoom Brainbox Bella Duffield and Christie’s UK chairman Orlando Rock played some serious hands of bridge on Zoom during lockdown with their great friends Moon Askari and Dimitri Goulandris.
Dimitri Goulandris Orlando Rock
Arabella Duffield
Rhydian Morgan-Jones Simon Keswick
Lady Hesketh
PHOTOGRAPHS: CHARLOTTE BROMLEY DAVENPORT; DAN STEVENS; DESMOND O’NEILL FEATURES; GETTY IMAGES; JM ENTERNATIONAL; MARCUS DAWES; ROGER HARRIS; SHUTTERSTOCK
[There’s no point pretending otherwise – you will need a brain cell or two. Ideally, you will be able to count, and to remember which cards you’ve played, and, if you want to get really good (though only the very brilliant manage it), to be able to picture where all 52 cards of the deck might be at any one time. But you don’t have to be a genius. There are easy hacks to learn and mantras to recite – many devised by Andrew Robson, high priest of the London bridge scene – which will serve you well if you stick to them. Bridge has wrongly earned a reputation as being the preserve of musty, tea-stained governesses, tut-tutting at every unorthodox bid. Certainly, it has been through its bad phases, hijacked by the lippursing bigots of suburbia or the sweaty geeks of cyberspace. Not any more. Today it is played by some of the most interesting and glamorous people around, from Warren Buffett to Janet de Botton, Leslie Bonham Carter and Henry Keswick. Perhaps the most important f igure in the game’s histor y, though, was Harold Vanderbilt (‘Mike’ to friends), the yachtracing American railroad heir whose sister Consuelo married the 9th Duke of Marlborough. In 1925, while aboard a transatlantic liner, Vanderbilt came up with the scoring system that is still such an important part of the game today. The Vanderbilt Trophy remains the apogee of competitive bridge. But the real appeal of the game is that, despite its perception as a sanctuary from socialising, it is in fact profoundly social. Bridge is about being in the company of others and connecting with them through ways other than speaking. A card is played, an eyebrow raised, a joke exchanged. The happiest of hours can race past while sitting at that four-sided, green-covered table. Because when your biggest worry is whether you can cross-ruff the two of diamonds, all the cares of life are suddenly a long way away. (
Emma Keswick
Gloucestershire
The Keswicks, Claire Hesketh and Rhydian Morgan-Jones love their card games (Simon Keswick is a member of London’s exclusive Portland Club) and are old-school, country-house weekend players. When the Keswicks are hosting in Gloucestershire, delicious dinners whipped up by their cook, Christie, are a prelude to the games. TATLER
SOCIETY
Jason Howard
James Paterson
Henry Buxton
Edmund Gordon Clark
Minna Fry
Nick Ritblat
Isle of Wight Publishing pro Minna Fry, Nick Ritblat and businessman Charlie Skinner gather at bridge fanatic Lucy Morris’s family home in Seaview on the Isle of Wight for their games. These take place day and night – when the gang are not on long coastal walks or swimming in the Solent. Arrival is by ferry or hovercraft on Friday, followed by a 40-minute walk – tables and cards in hand – along the beach.
White’s The weekly Tuesday-night bridge men’s four in St James’s has been playing for 30 years, settling into the armchairs at White’s after a good dinner and large quantities of claret. Old Etonian Edmund Gordon Clark and insurance CEO Jason Howard are partners – Edmund, the mercurial player; Jason, the steady hand – and on the other side, serial entrepreneur Jamie Paterson is the calm foil to Henry Buxton’s passion, which does provoke a heated exchange from time to time.
Charles Skinner
Lucy Morris
MORE OF SOCIETY’S BIG DEALS… Politico club Michael Gove, Neil Mendoza, Henry Dimbleby and Susanna Gross make up one of the country’s most political bridge fours. They kept games going on Zoom throughout the lockdowns last year, with Neil beaming in from Oxford (where he is provost of Oriel College). Portland Club The most elite of London’s bridge fours gather at the Portland Club, which is based at the Army and Navy Club in St James’s Square. It’s a men-only club, but women are invited on the occasional evening. Playing continues until the early hours, with many a goulash deal doubling slams. Scottish club Shooting weekends at Dalmeny House are flimsy excuses for the non-shooting Neil Rosebery to trump the guns after dinner. The earl, 92, partners with his son-in-law Zia Mahmood (a former bridge world champion), and they rope in locals, children and grandchildren alike. Only wily banker Angus Macpherson is permitted to deal, while Neil’s son, Harry Dalmeny, picks up the occasional trick. TATLER
Tatler tricks: a cards crash-course
Francesca Carington gathers three colleagues around the bridge table to learn how to play their cards right The first surprise about bridge is the instructor: not the 70-year-old in cords and cashmere I had imagined, but rather a 6ft-something 29-yearold in jeans and leather bracelets. The second surprise is that bridge is actually… quite fun. I’d made my mind up about bridge before trying it. My parents loathe the game, which they think is exclusionary and boring. The first part is sort of true – you need four for bridge, so if there are more than four and fewer than eight at a party, people do get cut. I gather my three from the Tatler office: Louisa, Leaf and Eliz, in Leaf’s grandfather’s atmospherically book-lined, old-mannish flat. Our teacher is Rob Cobbold, who learnt bridge informally from his father (who was chairman of bridge at White’s) and formally from bridge bigwig Zeb Stocken. Rob doesn’t teach professionally any more, but he does lead the odd bridge holiday and is on a mission to attract younger players to the game. Out of his canvas backpack come some pretty floral cards, bidding boxes and a felt cloth for the table; I’m instructed to deal and the game begins immediately. Eliz and I are partners, while Louisa and Leaf make up the other pair. The partnership is (possibly) the point of the game: ‘It’s about building a bridge between the two sides,’ says Rob. We all ‘ahh’ appropriately. We pick up the very rudimentary rules of the game straight away – the ‘declarer’ (Eliz, for the first hand) announces how many tricks she thinks she’ll get. I, her partner, have to put my cards on the table for everyone to see and watch powerlessly as Eliz plays my hand for me. We take it in turns to put cards of the same suit on the table – and whoever puts the highest card down wins. Rob decides we’re ready to know more and that’s when things start to fall apart. Trumps enter the game; these can be chucked, declared, counted and drawn out. There’s bidding and a contract and a finesse. Many will fold in the face of such complexity, but for others, it’s exciting. (Louisa points out several times that she can see how people get addicted.) I, for one, could subscribe to Rob’s laid-back approach to the game: ‘Just lead with what feels good,’ he says. Not such a bad philosophy, on and off the card table. 19
Papa was a playboy
SOCIETY
He was the Argentine polo-playing lothario beloved by heiresses and revered by royalty. But to his daughter, Luis Basualdo was just her embarrassing father By CHARLOTTE PEARSON METHVEN
G ROW I N G U P O N N E W York ’s Upper East Side in the 1980s, I wanted only one thing: to be like everyone else. Having a father who was a racy Argentine polo professional, and who ran with a fast crowd – he was named ‘the Bounder’ by the late Daily Mail diarist Nigel Dempster – feels somewhere between glamorous and amusing now. But back then, when I was straitjacketed by the conformism of youth, it was mortifying. Whenever someone asked me what my father did, I would blanch and change the subject. My father, Luis Basualdo, died last December, not from Covid, but from a lockdown-induced descent back into the problem drinking that had blighted, but also given colour to, his already extremely colourful life. When I was young, he was only ever a sporadic presence, and never a conventional father. My mother, Lucy Pearson, divorced him when I was three, and he would be the first to admit that he deserved it. His girlfriends before, during and after their marriage included everyone from polo grooms to Park Avenue princesses and aristocrats. Ever the raconteur, he would entertain friends at the townhouse we lived in on East 65th Street in Manhattan. I faintly recall booze, laughter and raucous stories being told in the drawing room. 20
But despite his absence in my formative years – and after 13 years of non-contact in my teens and twenties, when his issues with alcohol and drugs tipped into a dark space and I was going through my own self-conscious growing up – we forged a close relationship in the last 20 years of his life. I will always be grateful for this and the fact that my two children got to know their idiosyncratic but lovable abuelo. He, meanwhile, having had so little experience of his own children, regarded them as mysterious creatures, to be patted on the head and kept quiet with ice cream and gifts (pro-Trump M AGA caps and T-shirts, on one occasion). With the greater maturity of adulthood, I was able to appreciate what he had to offer: he was flawed and shameless, yes, but also incredibly real, with a wicked sense of humour, especially about himself. As a child, though, I didn’t know how to handle having a father who was tabloid fodder, rumoured to have romanced, and possibly stolen from, the Greek heiress Christina Onassis. In other words, he was the ultimate embarrassing dad. His exotic Argentine-ness and lack of a day job made me feel different, like a character in a Jilly Cooper novel. At my Upper East Side girls’ school, Spence (now progressive, like most US schools, but back then, ver y
RICH PICKINGS Billionaire heiress and socialite Christina Onassis, who had a fling with Basualdo in the 1980s
‘establishment’), everyone else’s fathers were doctors and lawyers who wore Brooks Brothers blazers, had Ivy League degrees, summered in Southampton and were members of the Racquet and Tennis Club on Park Avenue. My father was also, in one of his many lives, a visiting student at Yale, where he played on the polo team, and knew George W Bush (who was not that stupid, apparently, but liked a drink). He was also a member of the Park Avenue Racquet Club, such was his ability to charm his way into the upper echelons of society. He loved to joke that he was better friends with the staff there than with the other ‘stuffy’ members, many of whom would blank him and try to have h i m r e move d . ( T he y ne ve r
managed to.) In later years, when I’d join him there for tea, the doormen and waiters would all greet him with warmth and fondness, even when they had to politely whisper in my ear to escort him home because he’d had too much to drink. My father’s skill lay in being the sort of person who would treat you the same whether you were a taxi driver or the Prince of Wales – a friend from his polo days in the 1970s, whom he claimed to have helped meet the desirable young women of the day. He was the proudest of Anglophiles, and that was a time in his life that he cherished and reminisced about regularly. He managed the nearimpossible feat of having ludicrous social aspirations – I’ve never heard TATLER
SOCIETY FRIENDS IN HIGH PLACES Basualdo with Princess Martha Kropotkin in the Ritz Towers on Park Avenue, New York
With his first wife, the Hon Lucy Pearson
Basualdo’s former girlfriend Clare Lawman, whom he called the love of his life
RACY DAYS Basualdo and Catherine Oxenberg at the Epsom Derby, 1985
Basualdo and the Hon Camilla Harmsworth, 1985
PHOTOGRAPHS: ALAN DAVIDSON; DAFYDD JONES; DESMOND O’NEILL/DESMOND O’NEILL FEATURES LTD; GAMMA-RAPHO VIA GETTY IMAGES; HARRY BENSON
With the Hon Daphne Guinness in the 1980s
anyone name-drop with greater enthusiasm, or more charmingly, peppering conversations with anecdotes about people such as the Duke of Marlborough and ‘Gordy’ White – while at the same time being completely self-aware and laughing at himself: a charming combination. His stories would generally involve a louche cast of characters and him doing something terribly indiscreet; he would tell them with a mischievous gleam, finishing with a ‘Well, what was I meant to do?’ kind of shrug. (I don’t know what happened with Christina Onassis, but only he TATLER
could make a story involving a secret Austrian bank account and fleeing London on a US passport sound like the innocent antics of a lovable rogue.) In the period when he and I did not see each other, he would send me letters from time to time. He was an eloquent writer, spoke seven languages and had an endearingly old-fashioned turn of phrase, which could be very funny (such as when he said ‘Softly, softly, catchee monkey’ to describe his pursuit of some rich woman). His sharp mind seemed wasted on his peripatetic existence. When a card from him
arrived for my 26th birthday, my then-husband Charlie encouraged me to reply, with a view to meeting up. Having realised by that stage that you can’t excise a parent from your life without emotional fallout, I arranged to see him for lunch when passing through New York en route to a wedding. We found him, of course, at the best table at La Goulue, immaculate in a linen suit and Gucci loafers, chatting animatedly to the maître d’. I would discover on subsequent trips to visit him in Argentina – where he would go to escape the New York winter – that he inspired
the f iercest loyalty in his old friends there. Asados were laid on at estancias, and dinner parties held in apartments in Recoleta, to welcome him – and, by extension, me; endless interventions were also made to try to help him overcome his drinking. Even his ex-loves held a soft spot for him. He lived on the Upper East Side with his second ex-wife, Jan, who was a devoted friend to the end. He was on warm terms, too, with Clare Lawman (the beautiful, kind woman he dated after his divorce from my mother), whom he described as the love of his life and ‘the only woman I have ever been faithful to’. He revelled in being a rogue – he was the first to refer to himself as ‘a gigolo’ when he arrived in Miami as an 18-year-old polo professional from Argentina on a mission to meet rich women. He never ceased to marvel at how he had wound up living such a jet-set life and he unapologetically loved every minute of it. He knew life was short, and that it could be disappointing at times, and so he embraced every bit of fun and mischief that came his way. To him, notoriety was to be embraced – the only bad publicity was no publicity. So, this is for you, Papa. ( 21
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POWER PLAYER Politics, music and money collided when rugby royalty and Old Harrovian Maro Itoje hosted the private view for his debut art exhibition in Mayfair By ANNABEL SAMPSON
W HAT KIND OF EV ENT – and what type of person – pulls together an eclectic guest list that unites Cherie Blair, barrister wife of a former prime minister, with with DJ Cuppy, a music sensation who has 7.4 million Instagram followers and is the daughter of one of Nigeria’s most successful businessmen? The answer is the private view of rugby star Maro Itoje’s debut art exhibition, A History Untold, which ran at the Signature African Art gallery in Mayfair last month. The great and the good assembled – Labour MP David Lammy and the British High Commissioner to South Africa among them – to celebrate the positive contributions that black figures have made to society across the centuries, touching on everything from mathematics and jazz to the Industrial Revolution. ‘The vibe, the energy – it was really positive,’ Itoje says, his eyes twinkling. ‘Super Maro’ needs little introduction. The 26-year-old rugby hero – and former Tatler cover star – has a multigenerational global following, thanks to his prowess on the pitch (he has been touted as a future England captain), his style credentials, his political know-how and his philanthropy. He is as comfortable talking to the BBC’s political expert Nick Robinson as he is fronting a Ralph Lauren campaign. The Old Harrovian is rugby’s biggest star since Jonny Wilkinson at the height of his free-kicking World Cup power, and is now represented by Jay-Z’s sports talent agency, Roc Nation, which also looks after footballer Marcus Rashford. I speak to Itoje before and after the opening of the exhibition, 22
which he co-curated with Lisa Anderson, a champion for black British art. Both times, he is wearing a black T-shirt, one ear adorned with his signature pearl earring. Bold art from Nigeria (the country of his parents’ birth) forms an uplifting, brightly coloured backdrop to our video call. Itoje’s love of art began in earnest when he started seeking out pieces to hang in his f lat in 2015 and discovered that there were limited affordable options in London. ‘So, when I went back to Lagos [to visit family], I went to some of the art markets and I just fell in love with the vibrancy, the beauty, the texture, the richness of the art – and the interest just developed from there.’ The flat, which he shares with his older brother, Jeremy, and Saracens teammate Rotimi Segun, is now ‘fully decorated’ with art. ‘I don’t even know how many pieces I have,’ he says. The exhibition homed in on the black history absent from the UK school curriculum, seeking to correct what Itoje calls a ‘single-story narrative’ by highlighting Africa’s many cultural contributions. ‘I’ve been to some of the best schools in the land,’ admits Itoje, who won a sports scholarship to Harrow aged 16. ‘And even at those schools, there wasn’t a lot of black history taught – and what I was taught was either the slave trade or the civil rights movement.’ This is something Itoje, who left school with a fleet of A grades and went on to study for a politics degree at SOAS (formerly the School of Oriental and African Studies) in London, is seeking to change. He recently became a
Below, Ojo-Ogun by Steve Ekpenisi This steel sculpture highlights how West Africa discovered iron before the rest of the world, bypassing the Bronze Age entirely. ‘The artistry in this piece is amazing,’ Itoje explains. ‘As someone who isn’t able to create something like that, it just makes me value and appreciate it so much.’
Above, Shape of Numbers and Eternity by Djakou Kassi Nathalie Djakou Kassi Nathalie examines the history of mathematics with a clay reproduction of the Ishango bone – the oldest known mathematical artefact, which dates from the Upper Paleolithic era and was discovered in 1950. ‘Ceramics isn’t something I was naturally drawn to,’ Itoje says, ‘but to see those pieces was just, like, wow.’ TATLER
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Right, Viva Sax by Giggs Kgole Giggs Kgole delves into the history of Sophiatown, a black suburb of Johannesburg destroyed under apartheid, in this evocative work recalling his black South African parents’ stories of attending live jazz performances in the district. ‘I think Giggs’s work is really unique,’ says Itoje. ‘It’s not often you see a 3D aspect, and it just adds another layer of interest, another layer of conversation. What he’s trying to depict with his piece of work – it has a really powerful message.’
Below, Maro Itoje and Lavinya Stennett, founder and CEO of The Black Curriculum, at the private view of A History Untold
PHOTOGRAPHS: INSTAGRAM. ARTWORK IN MAIN IMAGE: SHADOW WORK BY DEMOLA OGUNAJO AND BREONNA TAYLOR BY MOUFOULI BELLO
A BIGGER PICTURE Maro Itoje at the Signature African Art gallery in London
Left, Power of Paper: Queen Amanirenas by Damilola Okhoya The production of paper is referenced in this piece, inspired by Queen Amanirenas and the Meroitic script. Amanirenas, ruler of Nubia (modern-day Sudan), led her army to victory against the Roman empire. The queen’s exploits were carved onto a sandstone stela in the Meroitic script – still not yet fully deciphered to this day. ‘It’s a more sophisticated version of Where’s Wally? ’ Itoje jokes. ‘It’s the one I would like to have in my home.’ TATLER
patron of The Black Curriculum, an organisation advocating mandatory black history as part of the national syllabus. Does he believe the exhibition – which showcased new works by six African and diaspora artists – has been enough to instigate change? The strong political turnout at the opening would suggest that the interest is there. ‘All these things, they all add weight behind the cause,’ Itoje says. ‘It’s not about isolating anyone, it’s not about taking anything out. It’s more about telling the true picture – the whole picture.’ Itoje, who has spoken out about not wanting to be defined by his rugby career, is keen on venturing further into the world of art. ‘It is an area of interest of mine and something I’d definitely like to pursue,’ he says (‘time permitting’). As an avid collector, did he have a favourite among the works in the exhibition? ‘It’s like being asked to choose which child is your favourite,’ he jokes. ‘For me, it’s just the underlying message of the whole exhibition I think is important – the ability to tell that alternative story, the ability to show the other side of the coin, and the ability to celebrate the positive contributions of Africa to the world.’ ( signatureafricanart.com 23
PHOTOGRAPHED BY CHRISTOPHER STURMAN; JAKE WALTERS; MARYAM EISLER; WINNIE AU
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The delivery diaries With university behind her and lockdown limiting jobs, Martha West joined the army of bicycle couriers keeping London well fed during the pandemic Photographs by JUSTIN POLKEY Styling by LYDIE HARRISON
Shirt, £300, jacket, £730, and trousers, £500, by VIVIENNE WESTWOOD. Shoes, £675, by GINA. Vintage Christian Dior brooch, £425, vintage Kenneth Jay Lane Doorknocker chain necklace, £325, and vintage Monet Egyptian revival collar, £285, by SUSAN CAPLAN. Bracelet and rings, Martha’s own. Socks, stylist’s own
ON HER BIKE Martha West says her days as a delivery cyclist have put her off ordering food online TATLER
I STARTED WORKING AS A delivery cyclist after the first lockdown last year. With most bars and restaurants either culling their staff or closing altogether, the usua l work that a student or between-jobs actor like me takes up wasn’t available. Deprived of the option to eat out and faced with the ordeal of preparing three square meals from the same three square metres every day, many housebound people buckled to the inevitable and downloaded a foodcourier app. Meanwhile, the newly unemployed or freshly graduated, who had no furlough to fall back on, put our backs to the wheel. I was one of at least 30 people on the introductory Zoom session for the first delivery company I worked for, and there were several timeslots I could have chosen that day. Home delivering was perhaps the most zeitgeisty pandemic occupation you could take up without medical qualifications. Takeaways had never been a big part of my life before Covid. Growing up, I envied friends whose parents let them have a curry in front of the TV on a school night, while my mum toiled away – often thanklessly – making meals from scratch. At university in Oxford, I worked in my college café, cooking big pots of stew, pasta and dhal (the leftovers of which my flatmates would gratefully tuck into), so the typical student takeaway culture passed me by, too. From the moment I started university, 2020 had been fixed in my mind as the year I would leave full-time education and its side hustles to pursue what I really wanted to do: writing and acting. But when the date arrived, live theatre was obliterated, along with most of the jobs I’d normally relied on. I was left with two options: search for an office job that I could carry out from the bedroom I shared with my six-year-old sister, or do something outdoors. Having completed my finals online and spent months home-schooling ] 25
like. But not all delivery hours are equal: it took me an embarrassingly long time to realise that working in between mealtimes is about as profitable as selling sand on a beach. On my first day, I rode around for eight hours and earned a measly £21. The peak time is dinner, with big surges on weekends, when couriers crowd outside popular restaurants. At times we chat, though only as much as opponents before a World Thumb Wrestling competition, each poised to slam our numb fingers on the ‘accept’ button as soon as an order comes through. (The algorithm sends you an order request if you are the nearest rider to the restaurant, so if you are canny, you can scope out the places that are in demand and not too far from other hotspots, but also not in an obvious location on a busy main road.) Mornings are the least fruitful time, with occasional fast-food orders from hung-over teenagers. The later the mealtime, the more orders are made, but also the
Dress, POA, by ATELIER ELIZABETH BY ELIZABETH EMANUEL. Boots, £740, by AQUAZZURA. Vintage Kenneth Jay Lane Doorknocker chain necklace, £325, and vintage Chanel earrings, £795, by SUSAN CAPLAN. Other jewellery, Martha’s own
[ my tweenage brothers, I needed work that could get me off the screen and out of the house. The introductory Zoom call was slow, as applicants had to take it in turns to answer questions about why we wanted the job. Many made grand claims: they were ‘addicted’ to cycling or had a foodindustry ‘calling’. One man with limited English responded more pithily: ‘I want good body.’ He had a point, I thought. The first thing people say to me about being a delivery cyclist is always, ‘Wow, you must be so fit,’ often followed by a side order of disbelief as they size up my rather muscle-deficient physique. I arrived once at a pub to meet friends after a shift and as soon as they boomed, ‘Gwarn then, show us your takeaway bod!’ I could feel onlookers deciphering which end of the ‘takeaway bod’ spectrum they might mean: a groaning heap lying in a sea of pizza boxes, or a six-pack honed by miles of uphill pedalling? If I’m honest, my main ‘gain’ has been stiffness rather than fitness, thanks to all the shoulder-burdened 26
I meet harassed mothers who have eventually given up the eat-your-greens battle and succumbed to a Domino’s cycling. In the first lockdown, I did bedroom-floor yoga and park runs with everyone else, but after a long, chilly, often rainy, shift on my bike, riding as many as six miles per delivery, I usually arrive home feeling achy, strained and damp, knowing I’d be a lot more chipper had I squatted and lunged my day away with Joe Wicks. The job does have its freedoms, but it’s not a money-spinner. Many delivery companies in England do not pay riders a minimum hourly wage; instead, we often earn between £3 and £5 per delivery. During the first two lockdowns, I was lucky; I had a bike already and I lived with my mother, but for some, you’d have to make approximately 230 deliveries a month just to pay rent in London. One of the benefits of being a rider is the flexible hours – you can clock on and off whenever you
higher the likelihood of getting a crabby customer. At lunchtimes, home-office professionals answer their shiny apartment-block buzzers in exasperated tones, telling me to ‘Come up – get the numbers on that, Jared – to the fifth – I’ll forward to sales – floor’. When I say I can’t come in due to Covid restrictions, they frustratedly shuffle to the door in suit jackets and slippers to collect their halloumi burger with one hand, holding their phone in the other. Equally harassed but often more grateful lunchtimers are parents at home with their children. I meet worn-out mothers who have eventually given up the eat-yourgreens battle and succumbed to a Domino’s. Other parents appear from ma keshif t home-of f ice spaces, eyes hazy from confronting the infinite reality of their children for the first time since deciding to
have them. They receive their midwork sushi lunch in stealth, before the vultures of their household pick up the scent. Afternoons are mostly graveyard shifts, with only the occasional bakery-craver or late-luncher, who is usually in no great rush. But it’s not always plain sailing: I once got lost on a housing estate and turned up at a children’s party, with a family singing ‘Happy Birthday’ inside as I hastily unpacked the cake that had already toured the neighbourhood several times. The grandmother came out and told me I had ‘ruined’ the birthday party. Other members of the afternooner demographic are teens who have snuck onto their parents’ phones to order a single bubble tea or cookie after school. These are among the worst to deliver to. You often have to wait 10 minutes for the single order to be prepared, then transport a solo dinky refreshment several miles, knowing you will definitely not be tipped. Sadly, tippers are like hedgehogs: they are rare and predominantly come out at night. The saving grace of carrying a huge supper several miles is that satisfied customers are more likely to tip me a few quid than, say, Millie waiting for her post-netball frappuccino. Occasionally, my friends or family try to game the system by timing their takeaways so their order comes through nearby when I’m on shift. It rarely works, and instead I end up several miles in the wrong direction, dropping off another person’s dinner, while my colluders tuck into pad Thai without me. Being a delivery rider has put me off ordering takeaways. It’s too easy to compare the price of an order with the number of deliveries it would take to earn that much. When the sun is shining, riding through the city on your bike can be as cheerful as Lily Allen’s song LDN makes out. But during the colder months, the dark streets feel hostile and the app-clicking repetitive, which makes meeting someone on the other end who is smiley and grateful for your pedalling all the more valuable. ( TATLER
HAIR: TAKUYA MORIMOTO AT DANIEL GALVIN. MAKE-UP: MARY GREENWELL AT PREMIER. PHOTOGRAPHER’S ASSISTANT: CHARLES RYDER. CREATIVE PRODUCTION: POPPY EVANS
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Rock of ages Whether you’re seeking a superb aperitif or a fine food pairing, Whispering Angel’s bigger and richer sister is the perfect rosé for countless occasions ‘IT ALL STARTED WITH A WHISPER and now it’s time to Rock.’ The words of Sacha Lichine, the visionary behind Château d’Esclans, perfectly encapsulate the character of Rock Angel, a rosé launched six years ago by the renowned producers of Whispering Angel. Made from Grenache and Rolle (Vermentino) and partially fermented in large oak barrels, this Côtes de Provence wine bears a more complex and structured taste profile than its beloved predecessor, which has earned it the moniker ‘Super Whispering Angel’. Nothing compares to an al fresco glass of rosé on a balmy summer’s evening – for many, the first sip heralds the beginning of the season. However, with Rock Angel, September need not mark the end of this ritual. Granted, you might need to relocate somewhere warmer, but the depth and sophistication of this wine renders it a year-round pleasure. Better still, unlike many rosé wines, Rock Angel traverses that preprandialtable divide. With Château d’Esclans’ characteristic light fruit aromas (critic James Suckling notes rose, strawberry, raspberry and nectarine), it makes a fabulous aperitif. But the joy does not end here. ‘It is medium-bodied with crisp acidity and a juicy, creamy palate,’ adds Suckling. ‘Deliciously fruity with good concentration and length.’ In general, those who enjoy the minerality of Sancerre love this wine. It is through this complexity that Rock Angel finds its way onto the table as a robust pairing for an impressive range of fine foods. Fellow wine critic Matthew Jukes concurs. ‘2020 Rock Angel is a
‘Luxurious, aerial, composed and effortlessly grand, Whispering Angel’s big sister is a thrilling wine’ magnificent creation, pointing to structured balance with innate elegance. The oak involvement is so well judged and so well integrated that it is barely noticeable as a flavour, but as a texture enhancer, it is second to none. Luxurious, aerial, composed and effortlessly grand, Whispering Angel’s big sister is a thrilling wine in 2020. It is worth noting that this is not an aperitif wine but a serious accompaniment to fine food.’
Appearance may not be everything, but with many keen hosts having spent lockdown honing their ‘tablescaping’ skills, it is an important consideration. Once again, Rock Angel rises to the occasion. Its elegant bottle always looks the part and its striking wing motif often proves to be an excellent talking point. Dress a rustic wooden table in simple white linens, top with a generous supply of Rock Angel and guests might even mistake your back garden for the glorious vineyards of Provence – which, with travel still uncertain, is sure to delight. It will come as no surprise, then, that in an increasingly competitive market, Rock Angel is the unrivalled leader of the premium rosé pack. In six short years, it has secured a reputation among oenophiles and casual drinkers alike as a fun yet fine wine that adds a certain je ne sais quoi to any affair, without breaking the bank. Affordable, enjoyable and endlessly chic, Rock Angel, like its whispering counterpart, will be gracing top tables for decades to come.
For more information, please visit esclans.com/product/rock-angel @thewhisperingangel
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Smart cots, placenta pills, molecular bathing milk… With all eyes on Meghan after the birth of her daughter, Lilibet Diana, California-based Kinvara Balfour has the lowdown on parenting in La-La Land NOW THAT MEGHAN AND Harry have become parents for the second time, they’ll want to know what’s hot in the USA when it comes to babycare essentials. Though they’re based in Santa Barbara, they’ll pop down the road to Los Angeles for extra fun – it’s like hopping between Oxford and London (kind of). But it’s a very different landscape to that of Britain, where I grew up, and one that lacks John Lewis, a free health service with visiting midwives, and a host of family around. Without these trusty baselines, it can be a jungle for a new parent to navigate. I h a v e h a d t w o b a bie s i n California over the past four years, and the treatment I have received
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has been exceptional. They were both born at Cedars-Sinai in Holly wood – a place that is incredible for care, not so much for cuisine. The abysmal food at this renowned establishment is as famous as the clients it serves (Kardashian after Kardashian after Kardashian) and makes The Portland look like Claridge’s. Meghan delivered her daughter, Lilibet Diana MountbattenWind sor, at Sa nt a Ba rba ra Cottage Hospital, some seven miles from t he Du ke a nd Duchess of Sussex’s mansion in Montecito. Consider this a kind of district hospital; it is part of a not-for-profit system. Founded in 1888 by 50 women determined to provide a healthcare facility for
the growing community of Santa Barbara, it’s well known for its hands-on care and midwifery v ibe s more a k i n to Call the Midwife than Grey’s Anatomy. One hopes, what with Santa Barbara’s Mediterranean climate, that the food is more farm-to-hospital than it is at Cedars. If he’d been peckish, Harry would have been able to order a nice steak from Lucky’s (Montecito’s answer to The Wolseley) via Postmates (our equivalent of Deliveroo). Now safely home, little Lili Mountbatten-Windsor is no doubt already being cradled by a Snoo smart cot – a self-rocking crib that is like the iPhone for California babies. Everyone has one, from Gigi Hadid and Chloë Sevigny, to Kate Hudson, Serena Williams, and former co-stars turned married couple Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher. The inventor of the ‘smart sleeper’, Dr Harvey Karp, is a friend of mine (and many others besides). What he has created is life-changing and the very first item that a Californian parent secures once a pregnancy is confirmed. The Snoo’s celebrity investors include Jessica Biel, Justin Timberlake and Scarlett Johansson. I yearn for an adult version to be invented. Lili may wear nappies from The Honest Company, the eco-friendly brand built by Jessica Alba that was recently valued at $2 billion. Her nursery, and every hand that holds her, will assuredly be sanitised with Safely, a newly launched (and ridiculously timely) brand of plant-powered cleaning products from Chrissy Teigen, Kris Jenner and Emma Grede – Khloé Kardashian’s business partner. In these first precious weeks, it’s highly likely that Lili will be surrounded by balloon gifts from Bonjour Fête (those colourful latex spheres you see all over Instagram, held by Drybar-styled ladies with perfect smiles), and flowers galore from Eric Buterbaugh, California’s celebrity florist whose BFFs are Gwyneth Paltrow, Demi Moore, Naomi Campbell and Debbie von Bismarck. As for Meghan, she’ll
probably be taking capsules made from her own placenta for the first few weeks (a typical post-partum ritua l in La-La Land). She’ll perhaps even have stored blood and tissue from the umbilical cord (it’s rich in haematopoietic stem cells, which can help if Lili is ill) with private cord blood bank Cryo-Cell. At more than $3,000, this process isn’t for everyone, but it is considered t he norm in well-heeled parts of California. If Meghan is breastfeeding and appearing on Oprah: The Sequel, she’ll need a wearable breast pump by US-loved, Brit-born fem-tech company Elvie, which made its Hollywood premiere in the 2019 Oscars goodie bag and is now nestled in the Everlane bra of many a busy mother. Elvie’s Kegel pelvicfloor trainer is also a post-baby hit. The duchess may well have organic ready meals delivered to her Montecito mansion by Daily Harvest. The company is backed by Natalie Massenet’s Imaginary Ventures, which she co-founded with Nick Brown, the boyfriend of fashion journalist Derek Blasberg. M a s s ene t’s b oy f r iend , E r i k Torstensson, meanwhile, is busy launching Frame Denim all over the land, and his business partner, Jens Grede (hu sba nd of t he aforementioned Emma, of Safely eco-friendly cleaning products), is helping Kim Kardashian with her shapewear line, Skims – must-have wardrobe basics for a duchess preand post-pregnancy. For exercise, Meghan can hit Dogpound for boxing and weight training with one of its expert but notably unpretentious instructors, alongside Kaia Gerber, Cara Delevingne, Lily Collins and the Biebers. Back in the privacy of her own Montecito garden, the duchess could do Drumboxing with creator and master percussionist John Wakefield (Harry can join in – it’s brilliant for mental health). This drumbeat/heartbeat, focus-the-mind concept – basically mindful drumming – is the new big thing here and it’s going global. If she hasn’t already, Meghan should check out the new ] TATLER
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CALIFORNIA DREAM The Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s Montecito mansion. Left, Meghan with her son, Archie, in 2019 The Duchess of Sussex’s mother, Doria Ragland, in Los Angeles
Kim Kardashian in her Skims shapewear
Dr Barbara Sturm’s West Hollywood boutique and spa
Serena Williams at the Balloons from Academy Awards, 2019 Bonjour Fête
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ADELE ASTAIRE Lady Charles Cavendish (1896-1981) Adele gave up her successful partnership with her brother, Fred, when she married Lord Charles Cavendish, son of the Duke of Devonshire, at Chatsworth in 1932. Exuberant and athletic, she is said to have cartwheeled across the floor when she first Adele Astaire reading The Tatler with her brother, the actor and dancer Fred
ACTING THE PART
met her new in-laws. Charles suffered from ill health, exacerbated by alcoholism and depression, and died in 1944. Adele remarried and moved back to America.
CONNIE GILCHRIST Countess of Orkney (1865-1946) Connie began working as a dancer at 14. She’d already had relationships with two aristocrats before she married
More than a century before Harry met Meghan, romances between blue-blooded bachelors and actresses filled the pages of Edwardian-era Tatler
Edmund FitzMaurice, 7th Earl of Orkney, in 1892. Largely shunned by society, she retired from the stage upon her marriage but played her lady-of-
By LUCINDA GOSLING
NELLIE SOURAY Viscountess Torrington (1880-1931)
the-manor role to perfection. The union lasted until her death 54 years later.
Gaiety girl Nellie met George Master Byng, 9th Viscount Torrington, at the races in 1909 and they married three days later. Later a prisoner of war, he disappeared from their home soon after his release. After their divorce, Nellie bought Soho club The Vortex in 1931. She was found dead that December, most likely by suicide.
CLARA TAYLOR Lady George Cholmondeley (1884-1925) The 1911 marriage of showgirl Clara Elizabeth Taylor Stirling to Lord George Cholmondeley, brother of the Earl of Rocksavage, was given piquancy by the fact that she had already been through a divorce. George sacrificed a legacy of £3,000 by not marrying ‘a lady in society’. Despite that, he deserted her in 1918.
FRANCES DOBLE Lady Lindsay-Hogg (1902-1969) The marriage of Canadian-born Frances and Sir Anthony Lindsay-Hogg in 1929 was doomed. She was six years older than the groom who, at 21, was mourning his mother, who’d died three weeks earlier. Her acting career was brief but bright. During the divorce, she claimed her husband had used coarse language and struck her. She later had an affair with the British spy Kim Philby in Spain.
ROSIE BOOTE Marchioness of Headfort (1878-1958) Irish-born Rosie’s performance in The Messenger Boy at the Gaiety captured the heart of the 4th Marquess of Headfort, but their marriage in 1901 was opposed by his parents. However, Rosie won over her detractors: by 1909, Tatler was writing that ‘her cleverness and charm have gained her great popularity in Irish and London society’. She and the marquess were married for 42 years. TATLER
PHOTOGRAPHS: BACKGRID; HULTON ARCHIVE/GETTY IMAGES; ILLUSTRATED LONDON NEWS LTD/MARY EVANS; INSTAGRAM/@BONJOURFETE/@SKIMS/@GREGSWALEART; MOVOTO/BACKGRID; SAMIR HUSSEIN/GETTY IMAGES; ©YEVONDE PORTRAIT ARCHIVE/ILN/MARY EVANS PICTURE LIBRARY
[wellness club Artha (up the road from San Vicente Bungalows, LA’s answer to 5 Hertford Street, where Harry likes to hang) for infrared saunas to heal and cryotherapy to revive. Then she might visit the new Dr Barbara Sturm boutique for a vampire facial (where her blood will be drawn and whipped into a bespoke face cream) and some Mini Molecular Baby Bathing Milk for bathtime back at the ranch. She may also see the osteopath extraordinaire Vicky Vlachonis to rebalance her body, and she should take Living Elixir (polyphenol-rich oil made from olives hand-picked from centuries-old trees in Greece) by Saint Supply, a slick new brand launched by Vlachonis and backed by Beyoncé. If you want to know how to use it, check out Gwyneth Paltrow’s Instagram feed. As for Lili? The preferred paediatrician in these parts is Dr Scott Cohen, the charming, childwhispering hero of Beverly Hills. In a few months’ time, there will no doubt be deliveries of organic, gourmet solids (kale and pear quinoa, and sweet-potato cheesecake) by Yumi. Or Meghan’s daughter may prefer ‘veggie-first’ nutrition – farm-fresh pouched purées (carrot/pumpkin, pea/basil) and Smart Bars – from Cerebelly, created by a neurosurgeon motherof-t hree a nd a lso backed by Massenet’s Imaginary Ventures. Once Meghan and Lili are ready to get back out on the campaign – I mean work – trail, they’ll need a snazzy crèche situation because nannies are notoriously expensive in California (a maternity nurse can set you back $6,000 a week). Lili and her parents can hit the new office/educational playspace BümoWork whose tagline is ‘Work Hard. Parent Hard’. And after that? Lili will need to be enrolled in the right pre-school – somewhere that champions both English manners and a good dose of American ambition. As for the former, let’s hope great-granny Elizabeth – the OG Lilibet – pops over for a much-needed vacay when life goes back to normal. (
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The temple to Surya EXALTED GROUNDS Above, Camilla and Edward Peake. Left, Sezincote with its onion dome. Below, the tennis pavilion
EASTERN ENCHANTMENT
Snake Pool and the Indian Bridge
The Asian influences at Sezincote tell a story of English pastoral planting via a passage to India
PHOTOGRAPHS: EVA NEMETH
By LOUISA PARKER BOWLES
THER E IS A FEELING OF mounting wonderment as you wind along the drive to Sezincote, the Gloucestershire home of Edward and Camilla Peake. It could be the grandeur of the mighty oaks lining the path that begins to stir the senses, or the sound of chirping yellow wagtails and water tumbling from springfed pools towa rd s t he R iver Evenlode below. The sculptural yew trees in the Persian Garden of Paradise also command attention. Of course, there’s the house, too, an eclectic masterpiece combining Islamic, Hindu and Regency architecture, with harmonious results. The unusual aesthetic of the house can mostly be attributed to a formidable trio of talents. In 1795, Colonel John Cockerell bought the estate from the 3rd Earl of Guildford. John had sailed to India as a young man and made a for t u ne w it h t he E a st Ind ia Company. When he died in 1798, his youngest brother, Charles, inherited the estate and employed another brother, Samuel Pepys Cockerell, a revered architect, to TATLER
build him a house in the Indian manner. The work of Thomas Daniell, an artist who had spent nine years in India, greatly assisted the bold design that began to emerge. The surrounding landscape, complete with curving orangery, wildflower meadow and tennis pavilion, unfurls above a Humphry Repton vista that has remained unchanged since the mid-19th century. It’s a spectacular scene of English pastoral embracing Mogul design. But it is, arguably, the less obvious detail at Sezincote that is the most enchanting. For this is a garden ribboned with family traditions and horticultural heritage. It is best explored slowly, ideally with Edward, an avuncular guide who knows all the gnarly knots in every tree, thanks partly to a childhood spent climbing them. ‘The garden is like an archaeological dig,’ he says, as we meander past the north lawn towards the Indian Bridge. ‘You’ve got different layers from each generation.’ Sir Cyril and Lady Kleinwort, his grandparents, rescued the estate from disrepair in
1944 after it was used as a billet for American troops in the Second World War. A team of gardeners had once kept the grounds immaculate and, although the troops had mowed the lawns where they parked their tanks, most of the g a rd e n w a s ove r g r ow n a nd neglected. ‘My mother and her sisters have memories of being sent into the garden with scythes and told to look for dried-up remains of pools,’ Edward says. Today, the pools the young sisters discovered flow freely and are surrounded by sinuous borders that bloom with perennials. Those borders are the legacy of Graham Stuart Thomas, one of the great English plantsmen of the 20th century, whose meticulous advice was written out after each visit to Sezincote, in much the same way a doctor writes a prescription for a
patient. For instance: ‘Plant five Hypericum kouytchense in front of three Ligustrum. They will flower together.’ Thomas was first commissioned by Lady Kleinwort to advise on which plants would do well in the limey soil. When Sir Cyril and Lady Kleinwort handed over the estate to their daughter Suki (Edward’s mother) in 1976, the warm relationship between owner and plantsman continued. When Thomas retired, he recommende d t he you n g R ic h a rd Bisgrove as his successor. Today, Greg Power is the head gardener, having arrived at Sezincote in 2015 by way of Buckingham Palace. Sezincote is a tranquil haven where Indian influences bring a unique charm to English horticultural excellence. It’s hard to know what Thomas would have made of the family tradition of swimming in the Temple Pool every year after Badminton Horse Trials. Or of Edward’s elaborate Easter egg hunts in the garden. Or of the eccentric use of tarpaulin draped over the steep hill beside the wildflower meadow to create a water slide in summer. But he certainly should have approved. ( sezincote.co.uk 35
FOOD
Eat, Fay, love
On a chilly evening in Fitzrovia, Fay Maschler finds Hot Stone sizzling with high-grade Wagyu and raw Japanese finesse
T H E L ON E LY PL A N E T guide suggests that raw-fish experts (afishionados?) rate Kotetsu as the best Japanese restaurant in Nepal’s capital, Kathmandu. Who knew? And who dares to eat raw fish in the Himalayas? (It is f lown in from Thailand.) Padam Raj Rai, the Nepalese executive chef at Hot Stone steak and sushi bar, worked at Kotetsu (as well as in Japan, doing a stint in Osaka) before coming to London in 2010. His CV then cites a not entirely unpredictable trawl through Roka, Nobu, Sake no Hana and The Westbury hotel’s Tsukiji Sushi (R IP). Next, he joined his brother Shrabaneswor Rai to open Hot Stone – first in Islington’s Chapel Market and now also on Windmill Street, Fitzrovia. Last year, The Caterer website asked Padam what his best subject was at school. Answer: geography. We eat outside at the Windmill Street branch. I am with my friend Joe Warwick, who might be the
only Northern Irish journalist to have completed a course at the Sake Sommelier Association. There are three tables and heaters, but no blankets, which our knees are calling out for. The arrival of the slab of volcanic lava rock heated to 400°C to cook our A5 sirloin Japanese Wagyu beef is welcome in more ways than one. But before that apocalyptic moment, we are exploring the highways and byways of the sushi and sashimi offerings. Steamed edamame beans, once so thrilling to screech between your teeth, can be ignored, even dusted with spicy sea salt, leaving you with £6 to spare, or, usefully, to spend. I strongly advise one, or even two, orders of the crispy rice with tuna tartare. The restaurant uses koshihikari rice, sometimes described as the crown jewel of Japanese short-grain rice, and here its sweet nuttiness of flavour is crisped into a conveyance for a finely diced, savoury tuna tartare. Our next choice, made with impeccable guidance from the restaurant manager, Sue, is one of the signature sashimi: seared butterfish with truffle spicy ponzu (a citrus-based sauce). It tastes as pretty as its edible viola garnish looks, with edges bronzed from the grill providing textural contrast.
WAGYU DOIN’?
ILLUSTRATION: ORIANA FENWICK
Want to make the most of steak night? These spots make the cut CUT at 45 Park Lane An import from Wolfgang Puck in Beverly Hills, CUT claims to offer ‘the finest selection of Wagyu available in London’, sourced from Japan, Australia and the UK. Eat here and watch Park Lane life whizz by. dorchestercollection.com TATLER
Mugshot Bristol Evoking the atmosphere of the Roaring Twenties, Mugshot boasts specials including prime steaks from the estimable Ruby & White in Clifton and, when pre-ordered, A5 (the best) Wagyu beef from Japan, cooked on hot stones. mugshotrestaurants.com
Royal China Club As well as Wagyu beef fillet in teriyaki sauce with black garlic, there are two Wagyu dim sum – the dumplings for which this restaurant on London’s Baker Street is famed – and beef roll served with enoki mushrooms. royalchinagroup.co.uk
The vexing question of what assortment of sushi/sashimi to order is mercifully answered by selection boxes of seven pieces. Accompanying them is freshly grated wasabi, imperative for its flavour but also for its bacteriasquashing ability. Much of the green paste masquerading as wasabi in restaurants is actually made of horseradish, sweetener and food colouring. Hot Stone imports the slow-growing plant from a farm in Shizuoka and grates it at the table, its hue changing as the grater moves from rhizome to stem, its impact much more subtle and beneficial than the ersatz stuff. Under the heading Hot Stone Highlights is grilled aubergine with saikyo miso and sesame. It presents as a huge boat, flesh sweetened with the pale mild miso and punctuated by seeds. It is a fitting prelude to the actual hot stone and the slab of Wagyu striated and marbled with fat. We turn it gingerly, then more boldly, sealing it on all sides, then slice along the grain. Should you be in two minds about eating beef, it would be easy to experience this as butter or a soft vegetal substance. The melting point of the fat is below human body temperature – even bodies sitting outside on a chilly evening. A few asparagus stalks are provided for balance and these we cook on the fading heat. A flight of three different sakes is an educative way into the list. The restaurant interior is cool and restrained in shades of grey and bamboo, but the welcome from the staff behind the sushi counter is warm. ‘Irasshaimase!’ they shout as you pass by on the way to the loo. More from The Caterer’s Q&A with Padam: ‘If not yourself, who would you rather have been?’ Answer: Mahatma Gandhi. ( hotstonelondon.com/fitzrovia
The Countess of Derby’s white peach sorbet with mint syrup Serves four 250ml water 150g caster sugar 125ml liquid glucose 10 blanched mint leaves, finely chopped 7 ripe white peaches 200ml prosecco 50ml lemon juice -------‘We grow loads of white peaches in the propagating houses at Knowsley Hall. This recipe is a favourite of mine and my husband Teddy’s – it’s a really good pudding for a summer’s evening.’ Simmer the water and sugar in a pan over a low heat. Stir until the sugar dissolves, then boil for five minutes. Add the liquid glucose, then let the syrup cool completely. Set aside three dessert spoons of the mixture, adding the chopped mint to it. Quarter five of the peaches, remove the stones and skin, and blend with the remaining syrup to make a purée. Mix the purée with the prosecco and lemon juice. Place in an ice-cream machine, churn until firm, then put in a container and place in the freezer for at least two hours. When ready to serve, slice the remaining two peaches and divide over four plates, top with a scoop of the sorbet and drizzle the mint syrup over the top. 37
WORKING TITLES The 4th Baron Ravensdale may be a whippersnapper, but he’s engineered an explosive rise while WFH
No golden carriage? Lords bridle at the distinct lack of pageantry as the Queen gallops through her speech
Wellington got the plum view ahead of mere barons of a more ancient vintage. Then we got the well-drilled ritual – this was, after all, her 67th By PATRICK KIDD opening – in which the Queen gave the slightest nod, causing the Lord THE STATE OPENING OF Chamberlain to dip his snooker cue Parliament this year was deand set Black Rod trotting off to pomped and under-pageanted the Commons. The door was thanks to Covid restrictions. The slammed in the face of Rodders, colourful supporting cast that norbut after a few bangs the MPs mally marches in with the monarch relented and followed her back to the Lords, though this year it was was trimmed down to a handful, denying the heralds, pages and only the party leaders, chief whips pursuivants their day out. Where and Priti Patel. normally we have an official with Normally, the speech would be the title of Rouge Dragon being produced with a flourish from a pursuived by Messrs Rouge Croix velvet sack by the Lord Chancellor. and Portcullis, egged on by the Here, it was laid on a table beside splendid Maltravers Herald the throne, like a brochure in a Extraordinary, all we got this time hotel foyer. The Queen picked it up was the Garter King of Arms, and did her duty. The speech was stuffed into his heraldic regalia and as banal as always. ‘My government looking like a well-fed playing card. will level up opportunities,’ she The Queen came by car, not in read from her golden throne, which a golden carriage, and there was no for once was not accompanied by a Gold Stick-in-Waiting, no Master second whose seat is a distinctly of the Horse and only one Lady of levelled-down inch nearer to the the Bedchamber. Since the Queen floor. The Prince of Wales, her pluswasn’t dressing up, the Mistress of one for the past few years, was socially distanced beside the dais. ‘We will empower the NHS to innovate… transform connectivLord Hannan, a Opening the Forty years ago ity… extend gigabit-capable broadformer MEP, made Queen’s Speech Baroness Young band… a lifetime skills’ guarantee.’ debate, Lord Bates became the first female one of the finest maiden wondered what the 16 leader of the Lords; now speeches in the Lords this The Queen may as well have been year. In response, Lord socially distanced statues both main parties have reading a list of spa treatments. Lilley said Hannan, a keen of the Magna Carta women in the role. Two Some policy areas had barely been Brexiteer, was no Little barons in the chamber of the past four Lord Englander. Indeed, he was considered. ‘Proposals on social would have thought of Speakers have been care will be brought forward,’ she not even born here. ‘Like the pandemic. ‘We have women. Now another Paddington Bear, he hails read. The best thing that could be probably seen more crack appears in the from darkest Peru,’ Lilley changes in practices over stained-glass window said for it was that it was short. But said, adding that Hannan’s the past year than the with Chloe Mawson the Queen played her part, as she previous 800,’ he said. appointed the first female preferred terminus might always has, without a sigh or a raise ‘What would they make of Clerk Assistant. Step by be Waterloo. Hansard does not record if Hannan of an eyebrow. Royal standards members being asked to step, the gender peer gave him a hard stare. never slip.( sanitise their chairs?’ gap is being reduced. the Robes had a morning off, too. But does a State Opening count if it has only two trumpeters? The occasion felt distinctly sub-parped. At least not all traditions had been jettisoned. The cellars were searched by three Yeomen of the Guard, cut from the usual 12, in case there was another papist plot, while a few ostrich-plumed Life Guards were stationed on the steps, should the Queen fancy a dip in the Thames. And there was still a touch of bling. The Imperial State Crown arrived in its own car, while the vehicle behind carried the Sword of State and the Cap of Maintenance, from which a flunkey might later take the Loose Change of Requirement to buy Her Majesty a Cuppa of Necessity. Instead of a packed Royal Gallery, the Queen processed in past 17 peers and 17 MPs, chosen by ballot. Passing under the marble gaze of her great-great-grandmother, she entered the chamber where another few dozen awaited her, seated in order of rank and then by the date their title was created, which meant the Duke of
BARON LANDSCAPE
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When the youngest hereditary peer first went to the House after his election in March 2019, he entered the chamber with nervous hesitancy. A doorkeeper soon gave him encouragement. ‘You are a peer of the realm, my Lord,’ the palace servant told Lord Ravensdale. ‘You should bowl in there like you own the place.’ Easier said than done when you are only 36 – and the average age of a hereditary peer in the Lords is 71. Ravensdale, a chartered engineer with a special interest in nuclear energy, was happy to watch and learn for a bit. As a peer who still has a full-time job (with Atkins, based in Derby), he found that working from home during the pandemic made it easier to take part in remote legislation. The Ravensdale title was created in 1911 for George Curzon, viceroy of India and foreign secretary, and without any male heirs it passed through his daughter to the novelist Nicholas Mosley. When he joined the Rifle Brigade in 1941, an adjutant heard his name and asked: ‘Not any relation to that bastard, are you?’ Nicholas explained that he was indeed the son of Oswald, leader of the British fascists, by his first marriage. Daniel Mosley is Nicholas’s grandson and took the title on his death in 2017, his father having died in 2009. He was elected to sit in the House as a crossbencher, the runaway winner in an election where only one other candidate got more than one vote. One, the then 25-year-old Lord Glenconner, was even more youthful. So far his contributions have been thoughtful and technical, faring rather better than Nicholas, who briefly sat as a Liberal and admitted he was ‘frightfully bad at it’. TATLER
ILLUSTRATION: ANNE SHARP/FOLIOART
POLITICS
TATLER
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Heels are out, dressing gowns in. So how to stay stylish this season? Sabine Getty reveals the labels and looks she loves for summer
WHAT CONSTITUTES AN IDEAL summer wardrobe in 2021? After months at home in lockdown, are we ever going to want to wear heels again? I struggle to think so – would we even know how? As I plan my summer looks, I find myself searching for clothes that are laid-back yet sexy. I want the world to know that I can still pull off wearing a dress – but not at the expense of comfort, which I now know to be the source of happiness. It is fair to say that I’m particular about clothes and I really do my research before making a purchase. Living in Britain means I spend much of the summer here, so I need things that work for any possible weather shift, of which there can be many in the space of a single day. I also go to Patmos in Greece, where the weather is hot and often windy, as well as to Tuscany, which can be a furnace during the day and really chilly at night. Over time, I’ve learnt to
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Above, vintage shopping at Aloe & Wolf in Siena
FLOAT ON Sabine in an Eres swimsuit and sunglasses by Saint Laurent
In Como, wearing a vintage Hermès shirt and trousers by De Clercq & De Clercq STEAL HER STYLE Catherine Deneuve in the 1968 film La Chamade
At the Venice Lido in a SIR shirt and vintage Chanel trousers
SHORE THINGS Loretta Caponi’s cotton and lace robes are cool and romantic (£670). I love the cut of Tropic of C’s swimsuits (£105). Simple, beautiful sandals by Gianvito Rossi are my go-to in summer (£360)
For bathing suits, I am in love with Candice Swanepoel’s swimwear brand, Tropic of C. I love the simplicity and cut of her swimsuits. They are slightly more risqué than the amazingly comfortable and cool Hunza G styles, but after a year and a half of wearing only tracksuit bottoms, it’s time to show off. I’m also a fan of the label SIR – it is perfect for chilled summer outfits that can be worn with flats, super-casually at the beach and for fun dinners. In Tuscany, I usually wear clothes from a local vintage shop in Siena called Aloe & Wolf – for instance, a great Romeo Gigli ensemble with stripy trousers and a crop top. I do sometimes n If you’re not barefoot, you’re overdressed wear more romantic clothes, too, such as a n ‘Deep summer is when laziness finds cotton and lace robe by Loretta Caponi. respectability’ – Sam Keen And when it comes to shoes, I love n ‘When all else fails, take a vacation’ – Betty Williams very simple and beautiful Gianvito Rossi n ‘I could never in a hundred summers get tired flip-flops and flat sandals. I wear them of this’ – Susan Branch every day and all summer long. ( avoid overpacking – the key to making it work is to simplify every look until it feels completely effortless and natural. I cannot do without a great pair of jeans. I have recently discovered The Feel Studio Inc, which offers a very limited selection. I love that, because it has enabled the brand to master one specific style – I would call it the old-school dad jean, but sexy and well fitting. They are perfection – and absolutely necessary for a British summer.
GETTY RULES
TATLER
PHOTOGRAPHS: JACK GAROFALO/PARIS MATCH VIA GETTY IMAGES; SABINE GETTY
SCENE WITH SABINE
FASHION
Photography: Liam Jackson, Production: Gary Kingsnorth, Grooming: Bethany Rich, Model: Fraser B at Established
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FASHION
MISS SIXTIES
Carolina Herrera Pre-Fall 2021
The Swinging Sixties are back, baby. A-line cuts and lots of leg are key – look to Carolina Herrera for interesting shapes and prints to modernise the mid-century aesthetic. LIKE CLOCKWORK Marc Jacobs, Tatler, February 2021
Lanvin SS21
Dedicated follower Dress to impress in this season’s boldest looks By LYDIE HARRISON & CHANDLER TREGASKES
COLOUR BLOCK Chanel and Versace just rocked the catwalk with bright top-to-toe tints, proving there’s nothing bolder than a one-colour ensemble. Earrings, £265, by GOOSSENS. Belt, £190, by MOSCHINO. Bag, £1,107, by GIVENCHY. Top, £850, and trousers, £890, by PRADA
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Belted coat, £2,175, by SAINT LAURENT BY ANTHONY VACCARELLO. Dress, £1,145, by MIU MIU at mytheresa.com. Patterned coat, £1,625, by MONCLER GENIUS x RICHARD QUINN at net-a-porter.com. Cream coat, £2,200, by GUCCI at net-a-porter.com
Versace AW21
Chanel AW21
TATLER
FASHION
Kaia Gerber
Devon Ross
Kendall Jenner and Gigi Hadid
QUILT TRIP It’s a country classic but the quilted look can be padded out around town, too. Dior and Fendi are the go-to houses for chic coats – paired with a Chanel bag, of course.
Dior AW21
YOU ANIMAL
When it comes to sunglasses, bigger is better. Go for oversized shades with a delicate frame for a spot-on 1970s vibe.
ON THE PROWL Christian Dior haute couture AW09
Run wild this season with accessories in leopard print – truly a timeless design, whether it’s haute couture or just a hat. Bag, £2,537, by DOLCE & GABBANA. Sunglasses, POA, by BALENCIAGA. Shoes, £875, by LOUIS VUITTON. Hat, £260, by DIOR. Boots, £1,050, by JIMMY CHOO
SHADY LADIES
Shoes, £684, by DOLCE & GABBANA. Coat, £2,690, by FENDI. Bag, £1,470, by CHANEL
£400, by DIOR
Etro AW21
£210, by MISSONI
PHOTOGRAPHS: BUZZ WHITE; COREY TENOLD; INSTAGRAM; PASCAL LE SEGRETAIN/GETTY IMAGES
£280, by GUCCI
£359, by GIORGIO ARMANI
£295, by FENDI
TATLER
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FASHION Shimmer and shine, Tatler, August 2019
Jeans, £335, by FRAME at net-a-porter.com. Bag, £2,820, by GUCCI. Scarf, £140, by LORO PIANA. T-shirt, £885, by LORO PIANA at net-a-porter.com. Sunglasses, £240, by JIMMY CHOO
Bag, £415, by MICHAEL MICHAEL KORS. Visor, £580, by DIOR. Earrings, £176, by JOHANNA ORTIZ at net-aporter.com. Shoes, £780, by BOTTEGA VENETA at net-a-porter.com
JACKIE, OH! Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, 1971
WEAVE MAGIC Get ready for summer’s biggest trend: raffia. Choose textured accessories in natural fibres that take you easily from beach to bar. Lightweight and lots of fun.
CAPRI SUN Embrace the easy, breezy energy of fashion’s First Lady Jackie O on holiday in Italy. Minimalist yet mega-chic elegance is the perfect look for jaunts on Capri and the Amalfi Coast.
Jacquemus SS21
BABY GOT BARK
Paris Hilton and Tinkerbell, 2005
PHOTOGRAPHS: LUC BRAQUET; ROLLS PRESS/ POPPERFOTO VIA GETTY IMAGES
Style isn’t just for humans, it’s for doggies, too. Pimp your pup with Prada, Fendi and Louis Vuitton accessories – all dogs deserve to live like an heiress.
Dog carrier, £2,080, by LOUIS VUITTON. Collar, £250, by PRADA at brownsfashion.com. Dog coat, £320, by FENDI. Lead, £530, by HERMÈS. Dog bed, £990, by VERSACE
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TATLER
FASHION Earrings, £2,595, by BROWNS FAMILY JEWELLERS. Cardigan, £325, by KING & TUCKFIELD. Candlesticks, from £35 each, by ISSY GRANGER
David Hockney, 1988
Matty Bovan
Artists in residence Yorkshire has long been a hotspot for creatives. Designer Matty Bovan works from his York studio, and David Hockney was born in Bradford. In North Yorkshire, Thirsk Hall has undergone an
King & Tuckfield, SS21 IN STITCHES
The Tapestry Room at Newby Hall, Ripon
Best Brits
arty renaissance with a new sculpture park headed up by Daisy Bell and Willoughby Gerrish. It’s set to become a cultural hub, with many events planned this year. London, eat your art out. Habibi eau de parfum, £39.95 for 100ml, by THE YORKSHIRE SOAP COMPANY. Skirt, £165, and jacket, £290, by THE DEERSKIN COLLECTION
Bettys Café Tea Rooms, Harrogate
Chandler Tregaskes heads over hill and dale to discover the haute spots of Yorkshire, from shopping to sculpture gardens
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There’s only one place in the county for a cuppa: Bettys, which has served afternoon tea and confectionery since 1919.
Ripley Castle and gardens, Harrogate
LADY OF THE MANOR
Lady Ingilby, chatelaine of Ripley Castle, has been hosting events at the 14th-century landmark since opening its doors to the public in the 1980s
Jenny Roberts, Harrogate Visit Jenny Roberts for a head start on all things millinery. It’s a favourite of the local crowd and created bespoke pieces for Ellie Goulding’s wedding.
Toulston Polo Club, Tadcaster For those champing at the bit for polo, Toulston is a must. The club’s verdant grounds are the site of first-class chukkas during the season. TATLER
PHOTOGRAPHS: ALAMY; ANTHONY BARBOZA/GETTY IMAGES; DAVE BENETT/ GETTY IMAGES; INSTAGRAM; LORNE CAMPBELL/GUZELIAN; SHUTTERSTOCK
Handsome estates, skilled artisans and chic country couture: Yorkshire is rich in history, art and unspoilt landscapes – but also in grandeur and glamour. Lovers of luxury head to Harrogate for fine dining and even finer shopping, while outside the town are several palatial stately homes and gardens to explore. Local style is rural yet refined, the vibe vivacious and versatile. Pair heritage tweeds with diamonds for a look that will take you straight from the moors to the dinner table. When bringing the Yorkshire look back home, decadent interiors are the way to go. Take inspiration from Newby Hall’s 17th-century OTT elegance with a palette of pastels, murals and outré embellishments. When it comes to style, God’s Own County is a true northern star.
YORKSHIRE ACCENTS
IT GIRLS, UNCOVERED Princess Diana’s twin nieces, Lady Eliza and Lady Amelia Spencer, photographed for Tatler
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JEWELLERY
WATCH AND GLISTEN
Diana, Princess of Wales wearing a Cartier Tank watch in 1995
A new show at the Saatchi Gallery celebrates seven of Cartier’s best-loved designs – and their society wearers By CHARLIE MILLER
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The Saatchi Gallery 1 Juste un Clou bracelet Fascinated by hardware motifs and New York’s industrial heart, Aldo Cipullo designed this minimalist bracelet, taking the humble nail and transforming it into a gleaming 18-carat gold bangle. 2 Trinity ring Designed in 1925 by Louis Cartier as a private commission for the French writer Jean Cocteau, the Trinity ring features three intertwining gold bands (yellow, pink and white gold), symbolising love, faithfulness and friendship. 3 Love bracelet The idea behind this bracelet, created by Cipullo in 1969, was that it was almost impossible to put on by oneself. Legend has it that Cartier gave bracelets to some of the century’s most alluring couples, including the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, and Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton.
1
3
6 Santos watch Designed in 1904 by Louis Cartier for the Brazilian aviator Alberto Santos-Dumont, the Santos was one of the first modern watches made to be worn on the wrist. It was also the first to make the screws – FIRST CLASS Above, Jacqueline traditionally hidden in Kennedy Onassis in watchmaking – visible. 1976, with a Tank watch on her wrist 7 Ballon Bleu watch One of Cartier’s modern icons, 2 the Ballon Bleu was named for its two most prominent details: the blue sapphire cabochon mounted on the crown, and the spherical ‘balloon’ shape of the case. TATLER
PHOTOGRAPHS: ALAMY; BETTMAN/GETTY; PHOTO 2000 © CARTIER; MARIAN GÉRARD, COLLECTION CARTIER © CARTIER; NILS HERRMANN, COLLECTION CARTIER © CARTIER; VINCENT WULVERYCK, COLLECTION CARTIER © CARTIER
IN THE GLITTER ING pantheon of high jewellery, one name sparkles just a bit brighter than all the rest: Cartier. Founded by Louis-François Cartier in 1847, the Paris-based jewellery house has been in the business of making icons for more than 170 years: bangles glinting on the chicest of wrists, diamonds snaking around elegant necks, and panthers – Cartier’s famous feline motif – winking in the light. These gems have become design classics, and now Cartier is paying tribute to seven of its finest pieces in Studio 7, a new photography exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery in Chelsea. It’s well worth a visit. The first room exhibits striking black-andwhite portraits of famous Cartier clients, including Andy Warhol wearing his Tank watch, Jean Cocteau with his Trinity ring and Tina Turner in her Love bracelet. Here, too, are some of the earliest iterations in Cartier’s most memorable collections, including the very first Juste un Clou bracelet, made in 1971 in New York. The second room plays dramatic projections of modern friends of the maison – among them actress Vanessa Kirby and boxer Ramla Ali – captured by photographer Mary McCartney. The third space is a studio where visitors are invited to be snapped wearing a Cartier creation. They can leave the show with a keepsake print – like a theme-park photo, but infinitely more glamorous. ( Studio 7 runs from 23 July until 8 August; saatchigallery.com
Dress, £5,289, by ALEXANDRE VAUTHIER. Trousers, £850, by CAROLINE ANDREW. Skirt and hat, for hire from ANGELS COSTUMES. Shoes, £770, by LIUDMILA. Gloves, £145, by PAULA ROWAN Opposite page, dress, £9,604, by OSCAR DE LA RENTA. Hat, £1,250, by ALISON TOD. Gloves, £68, by MISCREANTS
She’s Scot Photographs by Oli Kearon Styling by Sophie Pera
TATLER
Dazzling at Dalmeny House, the family seat, Lord Dalmeny’s daughter Delphi Primrose is a Scottish society beauty, TikTok phenomenon and supermodel in the making. By Sacha Forbes
talent TATLER
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t’s a sunny afternoon and Lady Dalmeny and her daughter Delphi Primrose are showing me around the garden of Lady Dalmeny’s house in Earlston, Scotland, where she has lived for the past five years. The meticulously planted beds are now blooming with forget-me-nots, roses, foxgloves and, of course, primroses; the garden has dramatic views over the River Leader. Caroline Dalmeny, tall, blonde, softly spoken and elegant in a pale blue fitted shirt and tartan skirt, is a passionate gardener who enlisted the help of her five children on the estate during lockdown. ‘We were always busy helping Mum plant things,’ laughs Delphi, as we head inside and settle in the sitting room, where her handsome younger brother, Caspian, 15, wanders in to greet us. At 5ft 8in, with luminous skin, messy brown hair and huge pale blue eyes, Delphi, who is about to turn 18, is a beguiling mix of a young Jane Birkin and Natalia Vodianova. She looks completely at home in her flared jeans, trainers and longsleeved T-shirt. Relaxed and polite, she seems to possess a poise beyond her years – which is just as well, because she has been signed as a model, and has every likelihood of becoming a frequent cover girl. In 2018, after being endlessly scouted during school holidays, Delphi finally signed with Storm, a modelling agency with a reputation for nurturing young talent. Not one to simply rely on her natural beauty to get by in life, Delphi, like her father, Lord Dalmeny, the formidably energetic and charismatic chairman of Sotheby’s in the UK, is a bright, animated, multitasking dynamo. And the life of this teenager is something of a whirlwind: she is studying for her A-levels, and passionate about art and architecture; she sews, embroiders, trampolines, skis, plays tennis and is a member of the Caledonian Scottish dancing society at school; she adores her close-knit family
and just happens to have amassed 7.4 million views on one of her recent TikToks. ‘I had a couple of videos that just blew up,’ she explains, ‘and it kind of goes from there.’ She now posts up to three times a day. ‘Everyone can find something entertaining on there, because it’s spookily good at finding out what you want to see.’ Her 259,000 followers went particularly crazy for a video she posted showing her nose in profile. And to be fair, it is the kind of nose that many people would pay a surgeon thousands to sculpt: small, upturned, perfect. But it’s actually the result, Delphi says, of a break when she was two, when her sister Marina accidentally pushed her over. Delphi is one of five children and onethird of a set of triplets. She admits that when her siblings were younger, they were all ‘quite a feisty bunch’. Marina, the eldest, was ‘definitely the bossiest, but also very responsible – she looks after us all’. Describing her relationship with her triplet siblings, Delphi says: ‘I was born with two best friends. Tolly would kill for me, Celeste would die for me, and while it was sad with Mum and Dad getting divorced [in 2014], ultimately it’s made us as a sibling group really close, reliant on each other and resilient to the outside world.’ Both Delphi’s parents live between London and Scotland, and the various lockdowns have made Delphi keenly aware of how much her family means to her. ‘You have to treasure it and put effort into it. As you grow up and grow apart, it’s really important to be present, and to mindfully appreciate them in the moment, which has been a really good part of lockdown for me.’ She is close, too, to both sets of her grandparents. As she grew up, home was London and on the Rosebery estate, next to Dalmeny House, one of Scotland’s most treasured stately homes. The family has lived at Dalmeny, west of Edinburgh, for more than 350 years. Her 92-year-old grandfather, the 7th Earl
The children were brought up to be ‘all-weather’: ‘It was ski suits if it was really cold, bin bags if it was really wet’ 52
of Rosebery, lives in the main house with Delphi’s beloved 89-year-old grandmother. ‘She has developed a huge interest and knowledge of the art world, having lived in and looked after Dalmeny for so long,’ Delphi says. Now that the lockdown restrictions have eased, Delphi and her siblings – who spent most of the pandemic either at home in Earlston with their mother, or at their house on the Rosebery estate – have been able to spend more time with their grandparents, reassured by the fact that they have been fully vaccinated. The time apart, Delphi says, ‘has really made me appreciate them more’.
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ife in Scotland has given the siblings the freedom to enjoy the outdoors. Caroline, their mother, tells me that the children were brought up to be ‘all-weather’: ‘It was ski suits if it was really cold, bin bags if it was really wet,’ she says, laughing. Days were spent ‘in the woods and by rivers, building huts and things’, remembers Delphi. ‘And in the winter, we’d go down the snow-covered hills in huge wheelbarrows.’ Caroline recalls with amusement the whole business of juggling bathtime with five children under five. ‘We had an old cottage in the Borders, way, way, way up in the hills, only really accessible when the weather was good. It was beautiful but really basic, with no hot water. It had one of these 19th-century sinks, which were wedge-shaped and as deep as they were wide. We had a tea urn that we plugged in for the hot water and would mix it with a bucket of cold water from the burn, and then the children would just fit vertically into these very deep sinks. You’d put them in and scrub them and get them out, and the soap was all peat-coloured and orangey. But that was the only way we could do it,’ she laughs. In 1814, the 4th Earl of Rosebery commissioned architects William Wilkins and Jeffry Wyatt to design Dalmeny House, and the Tudor gothic build was completed in 1817. With its sea-facing central tower and octagonal turrets, it is home to some of Britain’s finest 18th-century French furniture, formerly kept at Mentmore Towers, the house in Buckinghamshire that was built for Lord Rosebery’s ] TATLER
Shirt, POA, by ATELIER ELIZABETH BY ELIZABETH EMANUEL. Cape, £3,875, by SAINT LAURENT BY ANTHONY VACCARELLO. Hat, £575, by ALISON TOD
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[great-grandfather Baron Mayer de Rothschild in the 1850s, then inherited by his daughter, Hannah. After her father’s death, Hannah married the 5th Earl of Rosebery, and Mentmore and its extraordinary art collection remained in the Rosebery family until 1977. When the 6th Earl died, the sitting government refused to buy the house and its contents for the nation in lieu of death taxes, triggering one of the greatest house sales of the 20th century. The house was bought by an education foundation and much of the art was auctioned off, though many of the best pieces were brought to Dalmeny House. In one room lies an impressive set of Napoleonic objects collected by the 5th Earl, who was a historian as well as a politician. These include Napoleon’s shaving stand (the French emperor used to shave himself, fearful that if anyone else did it, they might take the knife to his throat) and the pillow on which his head rested while the garrison of St Helena filed past his dead body 200 years ago. The commanding entrance hall of Dalmeny House, where Delphi poses for the Tatler photo shoot, is presided over by ancestral portraits and a collection of Chinese porcelain vases. Below a family painting sits a governmental red box that belonged to the 5th Earl, who succeeded Gladstone as prime minister in 1894. (In his youth, the earl claimed to have three ambitions: to marry an heiress, to have a horse win the Derby and to become prime minister. He achieved all three goals.) A portrait by Carlos Sancha captures Delphi’s grandparents and their five children, Lucy, Harry (Delphi’s father), Emma, Jane and Caroline, standing in front of Dalmeny. The library is at the heart of the house and is still used for entertaining guests. Rebuilt in 1950 after a roof fire, it has magnificent far-reaching views of the Firth of Forth and of an immaculate nine-hole golf course, installed for the men who worked on the estate. (As Lady Rosebery gives me a tour of Dalmeny House, she tells me that there also used to be a bowling alley in the farm buildings, where the workmen’s wives could meet for their women’s club and walk home afterwards in the light of the full moon.) The comfy library sofas and armchair are covered in an elegant dragon-patterned fabric from GP & J Baker. ‘I found the 54
‘Lockdown gave me a lot of time to be creative. I take old clothes and cut them up to make them into new things. I basically took all my mother’s tweed coats’ fabric in a little interior-design shop behind Curzon Street,’ explains Lady Rosebery. ‘I thought it was important and fun – and the right scale.’ Also part of the estate is Barnbougle Castle, built in the 13th century and lived in by Sir Archibald Primrose when he bought the land in 1662. The castle was rebuilt in 1881 after explosives stored for quarrying were accidentally ignited. It has just one bedroom (the 5th Earl designed it to be a scholar’s retreat), and is now used as an exclusive wedding venue. It is here, standing on the curved stone staircase, that Delphi appears in her favourite look from the shoot, a sweeping yellow Oscar de la Renta ballgown. Given that this is her first fashion shoot, she demonstrates a remarkable ease and confidence in front of the camera. Watching as she runs along the walls in front of the castle, hitching up a red Carolina Herrera skirt, taking direction from the photographer and stylist, you would be forgiven for thinking that she had been doing this for years. As assured in couture as she is in her own clothes, Delphi loves fashion and textiles. ‘Lockdown gave me a lot of time to be creative,’ she says. ‘I take old clothes and cut them up to make them into new things.’ Tweed is a particular favourite: ‘I basically took all my mother’s tweed coats, so I have a huge collection,’ she says with a smile. Meanwhile, her day-to-day wardrobe comes from Brandy Melville, Urban Outfitters and Subdued, ‘because as well as being cool-looking, they really fit well and are flattering and make me feel confident’. For black-tie dresses, she goes to Anthropologie. Delphi’s friendship group is wide, made up mainly of family friends she has grown up with in Scotland and a close circle from school. The pandemic has kept them all apart for long stretches of time, but she says that Snapchat has been a great help as their ‘main source of connection’, though
now, of course, there’s more opportunity for real face-to-face fun. With restrictions lifting and summer looking hopeful, concerts and festivals are also on the horizon. She’s heading to Boardmasters in Cornwall in August to see one of her favourite bands, Gorillaz; she is also a huge rock fan, and adores David Bowie (in fact, ‘a lot of my favourite artists are dead’, she says ruefully). Delphi is hoping to get to Italy this summer, too, with one of her sisters and some friends. ‘Last year, our history-of-art trip was cancelled, so we would love to go and look at the art,’ she says. When in London, she loves catching up with friends and visiting art galleries, often accompanied by her father’s girlfriend, the art adviser Harriet Clapham. And she has applied to do work experience at an architecture firm. She thrives on the atmosphere at her highly academic school, saying simply that the competition among her peer group is ‘healthy’. As the afternoon progresses, Delphi, resplendent in crimson Dior, is fussed over by the hair and make-up team on the lawn while being shielded from the sun by candy-pink-and-yellow Rosebery estate umbrellas. Above her, cloudless blue skies; behind, the magnificent family seat; and ahead, the life-size bronze statue of the foundation stallion of Baron Mayer de Rothschild’s stud. Delphi doesn’t hesitate when the team asks her to climb on the statue for a photograph, doing so with humour and grace. So here she is, Delphi Primrose, a radiant, natural beauty with plans to continue with her A-levels and dreams of becoming an architect; a girl who wants ‘to travel and experience the world and see some things I haven’t seen yet’. And, she adds modestly, to ‘do some modelling’. Some? Fashion editors will be desperate to work with her. For here is the great new British beauty – watch this space. ( TATLER
Shirt, POA, by ATELIER ELIZABETH BY ELIZABETH EMANUEL. Jacket, stylist’s own. Skirt, £942, by ASH HOLDEN. Boots, £1,200, by PRADA. Hat, £685, by ALISON TOD. Velvet ribbon (worn as a choker), from a selection from VV ROULEAUX
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Jacket, £3,013, and trousers, £770, by DOLCE & GABBANA. Boots, £550, by SIMONA RUSK. Headpiece, POA, by RYSIA PIERZCHALA Opposite page, jacket, £1,351, by ASH HOLDEN. Shirt, POA, by ATELIER ELIZABETH BY ELIZABETH EMANUEL. Skirt, £1,986, by CAROLINA HERRERA. Boots, £1,295, by ROGER VIVIER. Hat, £395, by CAROL KENNELLY MILLINERY. Gloves, £145, by PAULA ROWAN. Brooch, £200, by OMNĒQUE
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Coat, £1,240, and boots, £805, by VIVIENNE WESTWOOD. Shirt, POA, by ATELIER ELIZABETH BY ELIZABETH EMANUEL. Waistcoat, £510, and trousers, POA, by JOSHUA KANE. Hat, for hire from ANGELS COSTUMES. Pendant, £535, by LE MONDE BERYL. Blanket, £500, by THE TARTAN BLANKET CO
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Like her father, the formidably energetic and charismatic Lord Dalmeny, Delphi is a bright, animated, multitasking dynamo
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Jacket, £8,800, by GIORGIO ARMANI. Trousers, £605, by VIVIENNE WESTWOOD. Shoes, £825, by GINA. Hat, for hire from ANGELS COSTUMES Opposite page, dress, £4,230, and belt, £560, by ETRO. Boots, £550, by SIMONA RUSK. Earrings, £1,160, by SAINT LAURENT BY ANTHONY VACCARELLO Hair: Oskar Pera at David Artists, using Evo products. Make-up: Terry Barber at David Artists, using Mac cosmetics. Photographer’s assistant: Nicholas Roques. Styling assistant: Nicolò Pablo Venerdì. Model: Delphi Primrose at Storm Model Management. Creative production and casting: Poppy Evans. Shot on location at Dalmeny House and Barnbougle Castle
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LADS’ ARMY The Commissioning Ball, Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, August 1988. Opposite, officer cadets’ passing-out ceremony at Sandhurst, April 2017
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THESE ARE LIBRARY IMAGES AND THE PEOPLE FEATURED ARE NOT THOSE REFERRED TO IN THE STORY
RAVES, RULE-BREAKING AND BOORISH BEHAVIOUR: IS SANDHURST AN ELITE TRAINING GROUND FOR TOMORROW’S WORLD-CLASS MILITARY LEADERS – OR JUST THE BULLINGDON WITH BAYONETS? BY JOSEPH BULLMORE
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SOLDIERING ON Sovereign’s Parade at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, August 2017
HERE IS A PASSAGE TAKEN FROM The Storm of War: A New History of the Second World War by Andrew Roberts describing the early life of one of the conflict’s most decorated and venerated leaders: ‘After an academically undistinguished time at the London day school St Paul’s,’ it reads, ‘[Field Marshal] Montgomery went to the Royal Military College at Sandhurst, where he bullied a fellow cadet so badly by setting fire to his coat-tails that the young man required hospitalisation.’ That incident took place in 1908. But it might well have happened at any moment in the intervening 113 years, dress code notwithstanding. It’s all there: everything to make the tabloids recoil in shock horror. There’s the mingling of the slapstick and the shocking; the privilege squandered on boorishness and bullying. Sandhurst, perhaps the most prestigious military academy in the world – the alma mater, as the red tops will remind you, of 64
Princes William and Harry – can scarcely go a term of late without a case or three of hijinks-gone-sour. Depending on whom you ask, the intermittent drama can either be swept aside as Monty-grade tomfoolery – the antics of a few bad apples on the natural migration from boarding house to Bullingdon to boardroom – or it can be attributed to something deeper and subtler and more irksome: a bubbling identity crisis at the very heart of the officer class itself. The coat-tails may have been extinguished, but somewhere in Berkshire, an alarm is faintly ringing. Let’s start with the mischief. Last November, mid-pandemic, after having spent three months locked down inside Sandhurst, around 50 cadets decided to break free of their platoon bubbles and hold an almighty ‘rave’, reported the Mail on Sunday. And the term was used advisedly. There were glow sticks, cracked open
to provide luminous face paint, and lurid cocktails thrown around with joyous abandon during bouts of spontaneous hugging, until the room at Old College – the broad, Doric-columned palace at the heart of the academy – began to resemble a Pollock painting under UV lights. (There was even talk of a smashed television.) After months of good behaviour, any deference to social distancing went suddenly ‘out the window’, a source told the newspaper. The cadets, members of platoons 22, 23 and 24 of Burma Company, were subjected to 5am room inspections, and a wider investigation was launched into the ringleaders of the misbehaviour. A cadet from another platoon who wasn’t involved said the chaps had behaved ‘like idiots’. Then, in February this year, Sandhurst was hit by a massive Covid outbreak, thanks to the flouting of the Forces Health Protection Instructions. (Boozy parties TATLER
and spurned social distancing were cited.) Around 50 positive cases mushroomed among the 750 cadets, revellers and innocents alike, including four staff and a member of the Qatari royal family, prompting Lieutenant Colonel James Lane to read the riot act: ‘All interaction between officer cadets and friends and family at the academy gates is to cease. Gyms are to shut,’ he said, before announcing the cancellation of a significant stage of the infantry training programme, the exercise known as Allenby’s Advance in Brecon. ‘Alcohol is not to be consumed by officer cadets, irrespective of isolation or quarantine status,’ Lane boomed. ‘We are now dry.’ Most painful of all: no pizza deliveries. ‘College funds do not extend to the purchase of pizzas for all those now in isolation or quarantine,’ Lane said. Less than a month later, the college, which has trained Army officers since
1802, was in the news again – this time over a case of repeated ‘disgraceful’ behaviour towards female cadets. (Women were first allowed to undergo their officer training at Sandhurst in 1984.) A court martial heard how, in 2019, cadet Hector Orrell had been caught on five occasions hiding in a female trainee’s room as she returned from the shower wearing a towel – and had also acted inappropriately towards two other women in the lunch queue, in one instance ‘pushing his groin’ against them. The incidents had been reported to Sandhurst’s chain of command in 2019, and Orrell was given a warning – but it wasn’t until a year later, when a new chain of command took over, that military police were called. Orrell, who has been dismissed from the Army because of his conduct, said that his actions ‘were the worst thing [he] had ever done’, and lamented that the tribunal had snafued his chances of following
his father and grandfather into the forces. ‘I held no malicious intent with the way I behaved, it was pure stupidity,’ he said. ‘Before joining [the academy], everything in life had come relatively easy to me. I wasn’t ready for Sandhurst when I joined.’ Perhaps that’s not altogether surprising. In a time of shifting sands for the armed forces, Sandhurst has its work cut out: the academy is expected to transform young cadets into leaders capable of waging war, keeping peace, co-ordinating complicated vaccine rollouts and more. ‘That might be the big conflict that Sandhurst has always had,’ says a former officer. ‘You are asking people to leave school or university in July, pitch up at Sandhurst in September and be a fully formed, mature adult pretty much straight away.’ Some cadets seem to attend more out of a sense of hereditary obligation than because of a genuine aptitude for leadership or a desire to serve the country. ‘It is familial,’ ]
ROYAL FLUSH The Duke of Cambridge suppresses a smile as he inspects neatly lined up cadets at the Sovereign’s Parade in December 2018
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REINS SUPREME Major Austin Salusbury and his horse Falkland at Sandhurst, 2019
[says another former officer. ‘My father went here, his father went here – can’t let the side down.’ On arrival, aspiring officers are met by an imposing combination of Greek Revival and Edwardian baroque architecture, supplemented by a clutter of portable cabins and more modern buildings. The bones of the site attest to the institution’s long and meandering history – an amalgamation of the Royal Military College (moved to the current site in 1812) and the Royal Military Academy in Woolwich, which was absorbed in 1947. The buildings are grand, sprawling and serious, with some accommodation halls named after great battles of the 20th century. In 2012, a new £15 million block was funded by the UAE, and named the Zayed Building in celebration of that country’s founding ruler, while a year later, a £3 million donation for the refurbishment of Sandhurst’s Mons 66
Hall saw it renamed King Hamad Hall in honour of the King of Bahrain (met with some low-level grumblings across the British establishment). There are three main intakes, in January, May and September, for the 44-week course each year, populated by about 200 cadets apiece. And the welcome for each and every one of them is the same, from the Crown Prince of Jordan and Winston Churchill to James Blunt and Katie Hopkins. It is a brutal shock, a disorientating break-’em-downto-build-’em-up assault that lasts five lung-burning weeks. There is very little sleep and plenty of short-range shouting. Sandhurst’s official motto is ‘Serve to Lead’ – prompting old jokes that the unofficial one ought to be ‘Skive to Survive’. But in reality, there’s no place here for shirkers. The cadets are worked unimaginably hard and put through ordeals most members of the public they
serve to protect would blanch at. When I ask former officers for their abiding memories of the place, their overwhelming recollection is one of engulfing exhaustion 90 per cent of the time. Another old joke speaks to the personal toll the academy can take. At the start of the course, it says, 20 per cent of cadets smoke and 80 per cent have girlfriends. By the end, those numbers are reversed. Sandhurst’s training programme is justifiably revered around the world. And it’s intended to produce that elusive concept: an officer class. The challenge is unique: to create a cadre of 22-year-olds who can command battle-hardened soldiers who might have 10 or 12 years of experience. In Victorian times, aspiring officers bought their commissions. Later, it depended on which school you went to; at the start of the First World War, there was, says Simon Akam, author of The Changing of the Guard: The British Army TATLER
Since 9/11, ‘a list of authorised schools – and if you went to those schools, you’d go to officer training’. Even after the slaughter of the Great War, Akam says, ‘they went back to this idea of the gentleman officer’. Now, entry is contingent on the more meritocratic metrics of academic qualifications and leadership skills; to get into Sandhurst you have to pass the Army Officer Selection Board, a rigorous system involving days of physical and mental assessments, written exams, in-depth interviews, and psychometric and cognitive tests. Yet for some, the trouble isn’t in getting into Sandhurst – a fair, if tough, process. It’s in getting out. Or rather, it’s in getting into the ‘right’ regiment. One former officer tells me: ‘The real story here isn’t the hijinks – but the cufflinks.’ Patrick Hennessey, a cadet in the mid-Noughties who wrote the memoir The Junior Officers’ Reading Club, explains that of the
many evolutions cadets undergo at Sandhurst, some are not helpful. ‘What I found slightly depressing is that it was a genuinely diverse place at the point of entry,’ he says. ‘A bunch of normal guys and girls in their early twenties arrive looking just like you’d expect them to, but somehow, a year later, half of them are dressed like cartoon 50-year-olds in pink cords and blazers.’ Nothing wrong with that kind of uniform in principle, of course, but several officers I speak to describe it as a sign of groupthink. ‘Within the Army, you have some regiments who pride themselves on social prowess as much as professional prowess,’ says one. ‘It’s tribal, and you see that snobbery in the jokes: “Your regimental history is available on DVD,” they’d say.’ Not a good thing: ‘Those clichés act as a barrier to the recruitment of the brightest and the best, and they act as a barrier to professionalism,’ another
concludes. Akam adds: ‘Perhaps it’s telling that they [Sandhurst] still have a beagling society and a polo club.’ If indulged, the theatre of being a Sandhurst man can act as a distraction. ‘Sandhurst is a leadership academy that must produce the best people for leading men and women on the battlefield,’ says Hennessey. ‘That has a lot to do with confidence and initiative and integrity – but I don’t see that it has much to do with play-acting at being 1980s Sloane Rangers… You find out in Iraq and Afghanistan whether you’re any good at your job. And it’s got nothing to do with what you wear on a Friday night or whether you drive an Audi S3.’ If Sandhurst’s role is to perfect the officer class of tomorrow, the institution can seem drawn to past ways of doing things, its cadets oddly retro: signetringed sentinels of generations gone by. Yet radical change is afoot: earlier this ]
PRINCESS ON PARADE Diana, Princess of Wales inspects the Sovereign’s Parade in April 1987
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‘YOU HAVE SOME REGIMENTS WHO PRIDE THEMSELVES ON SOCIAL PROWESS AS MUCH AS PROFESSIONAL PROWESS. IT’S TRIBAL’ Wiltshire, told military police that the incident was nothing more than ‘jovial hijinks’ and denied that they had tried to waterboard the other cadet. It was ‘just friends being friends’, one said, claiming they had simply tried to wet their fellow cadet’s hair. The victim, however, claimed: ‘It was a suffocating motion. Being completely blindfolded you didn’t have any sense of what’s really going on.’ He added that the encounter had caused him significant mental-health issues. ‘It made me feel massively dehumanised.’ Somewhere between those two different accounts, you sense the unspoken tension of a place like Sandhurst – and, in fact, almost every elite institution in 2021 where there is the opportunity for boys to be boys. ( 68
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THE SMARTEST REGIMENTS TO BE SEEN SERVING IN – AND THEIR RISING STARS. BY HARRIET KEAN
Public school boys, usually from Eton or Radley, are well represented in the armed forces. First, they head to Sandhurst for a year of discipline, exercise and bizarre rituals. Next is the Sandhurst Ball, a night of revelry, fireworks and sword-play. Then, they join a regiment, a decision that becomes a mark of social status. Connections (or ancestors) can come in handy, as not all regiments have the same cachet. These are the smartest.
Jack Robertson-Macleod, Coldstream Guards
HOUSEHOLD CAVALRY Royals (including Princes William and Harry) and old money rule the roost in the Household Cavalry, split into two regiments, The Life Guards and The Blues & Royals. Officers are nicknamed ‘The Piccadilly Cowboys’ because they ‘fanny about on horses in central London’, says a source. Lord Frederick Wellesley, a captain in The Blues & Royals, once engaged in a spot of ‘windmilling’ – taking blows to the head to test his resilience. Other officers include Old Etonians Charlie Onslow, James BruceCrampton and Tom Mountain.
Lord Frederick Wellesley, Household Cavalry
WELSH GUARDS The Welsh Guards attract polo-playing toffs, including George Cadogan and Oliver Powell, stars of the regiment’s team. They are known for their eccentric rituals: newcomers must race to eat a raw leek in front of the entire regiment and look after regimental goat William Windsor (Billy, for short). Orme Alexander Clarke is a respected Welsh Guards captain who has been deployed to Afghanistan and was a spirited prankster at Oxford (and a Bullingdon member).
SCOTS GUARDS The Scots Guards is a sociable regiment brimming with public school boys. Radley alumnus James Fleming is a member, as are Old Etonians Richard
Thomas Mountain, Household Cavalry Jamie Roy, Irish Guards PHOTOGRAPHS: DAFYDD JONES; SHUTTERSTOCK; GETTY IMAGES; MARK BEAUMONT; WENN
[ year, the government announced an overhaul of the armed forces that will see the Army reduced to its smallest size since 1714. Meanwhile, overall defence spending is set to rise by £24 billion over the next four years, with money pouring into boosting the Army’s ability to tackle electronic warfare. Sandhurst has shown itself capable, over many decades, of adapting, but it still seems to be struggling to fully thrust itself into the 21st century. A well-publicised incident from 2018 certainly sounds more at home in a boarding-school farce than a prestigious military academy. Two cadets allegedly placed a field dressing over another cadet’s nose and mouth, and poured water over his face – whereupon he tried to escape through their legs, before being seized by the ankles. The pair, on trial in 2019 at Bulford military court in
Heywood, Henry Edwards and Charles Longstaff, who plays the bagpipes at parties. The regiment claims to have a hoof from Napoleon Bonaparte’s horse. (Six other regiments also make this claim – though the Scots Guards are unique in using their hoof as a salt cellar.)
QUEEN’S DRAGOON GUARDS The Queen’s Dragoon Guards became the talk of the town after a group of officers did a photoshoot for Country Life. (Old Amplefordian Lieutenant William Simpson looked particularly handsome mounting a large tank.) One officer is Hugo Martel – a descendant of the Ropner baronets – who ‘basically owns half of Yorkshire’, explains a source.
LIGHT DRAGOONS Jet-set royals are drawn like glowflies to the Light Dragoons: King Abdullah of Jordan is the regiment’s colonel-in-chief and his son Prince Hussein, who graduated from Sandhurst in 2017, has served with them, too. The regiment is also known for its slightly eccentric love of elephants. ‘The mess is covered in photographs and terracotta models of elephants,’ says a source.
PLUCK OF THE IRISH The Duchess of Cambridge hands shamrocks to Giles Bromley-Martin at the Irish Guards St Patrick’s Day parade, 2019 King Abdullah II and Queen Rania of Jordan attend the passing-out parade of their son Crown Prince Hussein in 2017
COLDSTREAM GUARDS Archie Cosby, Jack Robertson-Macleod, Old Stoic Freddie Benyon and Old Radleian Hugh Scrope, are among the many well-spoken men in the Coldstream Guards. Officers in this regiment are a rebellious bunch, who like to host fancy-dress parties (one year the theme was Tube stations) and take part in ‘friendly jousts’ in the officers’ mess.
IRISH GUARDS
Crown Prince Hamzah of Jordan, a 1999 Sandhurst graduate Oliver Powell, Welsh Guards
Finn Benyon, Jamie Roy, Archie Yorke and Old Radleian Giles Bromley-Martin are all officers in the Irish Guards, a regiment known for its black-tie parties at St James’s Palace. The most junior officer gives guests a tour of the dining room (including a lengthy speech about Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, Queen Victoria and the Battle of Vitoria). After-dinner games tend to be riotous – such as ‘Round the Room’, which involves scrambling across the room over antique cabinets and mantelpieces without touching the floor. 69
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Sea fever Visions of sand dunes, the call of the tide… Draw inspiration from the wild, windswept shore and prepare for a long haute summer
Photographs by Thomas Cooksey Styling by Rachel Bakewell
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Beaded bustier, £795, silk dress, £1,595, cotton dress (underneath), £975, trousers, £695, shoes, £550, and socks, £85, by SIMONE ROCHA Opposite page, dress, £2,290, and gloves, POA, by FENDI. Shoes, POA, by WED Opening pages, dress, £3,550, and trousers, POA, by LOEWE
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Jacket, £3,400, top, £1,315, skirt, £2,160, shoes, £910, and headband, £1,005, by CHANEL
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Top, £420, skirt, £695, and headband, £310, by PRADA Opposite page, dress, £3,080, and shoes, £695, by GUCCI. Tights, stylist’s own
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Bodysuit, £660, collar, £1,415, shoes, £660, earrings, £475, and belt, £565, by SAINT LAURENT BY ANTHONY VACCARELLO Hair: Jamie McCormick. Make-up: Elias Hove. Photographer’s assistants: Adam Roberts, Stefan Ebelewicz. Fashion assistant: Tiziano Viticchie. Production: Poppy Evans. Model: Bianca O’Brien at IMG
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Sixty years ago this month, during a glamorous weekend house party at Cliveden, a chance meeting beside a swimming pool led to the toppling of a government, a new era of tabloid press and the crumbling of the old establishment. But, says Natalie Livingstone, the estate is used to witnessing seismic moments in history
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IN THE FRAME Christine Keeler at Cliveden in 1961
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The most notorious swimming pool in the country is hidden inside a walled garden in Berkshire. It’s a quiet spot for private reflection, as I discovered after my husband bought Cliveden in 2012. Above the pale blue water rises a 19th-century clock tower, its gilded faces staring out at the surrounding countryside as if determined to overlook the amenity that lies yards from its base. This is the pool from which 19-year-old Christine Keeler emerged in the summer of 1961, climbing out of the water and into the hungry gaze of a secretary of state for war whose name is now a byword for political scandal: John Profumo. The pool was a recent addition to the Cliveden estate, built against a mother’s advice. For as long as he could remember, Bill, Nancy Astor’s son, had pleaded to have a pool dug in the grounds of their mansion. ‘No, no, it’s disgustin’,’ she replied in her distinctive Virginian lilt. ‘I don’t trust people in pools.’ It wasn’t until 1953 that Viscount Astor’s luck turned. His horse Ambiguity won the Epsom Oaks, and with his mother having bequeathed the estate to him, Cliveden was his to alter as he wished. Bill spent his prize money on realising his childhood dream. On the bank of the Thames, only a few hundred metres from the walled garden, sits Spring Cottage, where Queen Victoria used to rest after bathing. In the 1950s, Bill Astor began letting the cottage to the urbane osteopath Stephen Ward, who at weekends entertained his rich and famous clients there – along with many pretty young women. One of those women was Christine Keeler, whom Ward had met at a Soho cabaret where she danced. On the steamy night of 8 July 1961, Ward, Keeler and two others wandered up to the pool for an impromptu moonlit swim. The party grew raucous, and at some point Keeler shed her swimsuit for a bet. Meanwhile, up at the main house, Bill Astor and his wife Bronwen were hosting an altogether more sober party. Their guests included the president of Pakistan and the Tory secretary of state for war. After dinner, the Astors suggested a walk to the pool, where they intended to show off a newly installed bronze statue of their son riding a dolphin. Their timing has become a thing of legend. John Profumo turned into the walled garden to see Keeler dashing for a towel, leaving damp footprints behind her on the terracotta tiles. The ensuing affair between minister and showgirl was frankly tepid, but the fallout was not. A government fell, and society changed. Later that night, Keeler returned to London to pick up a couple more of Ward’s girlfriends, and the next morning the group was driven back to Cliveden by the Soviet naval attaché and intelligence officer Yevgeny Ivanov, an acquaintance of Ward and a regular visitor to Spring Cottage. The group spent a lazy Sunday by Astor’s pool, where Ivanov challenged Profumo to a swimming race. Before Keeler departed that evening, Profumo – who, according to Ivanov, had been ‘flirting outrageously’ – asked for her number. 82
Ivanov drove Keeler back to Ward’s flat where, the Russian would later claim, they slept together. Two days later, Profumo tracked down Keeler and arranged to meet her while his wife, Valerie, was visiting his Warwickshire constituency. It marked the beginning of a half-hearted liaison, which Keeler – who once cooked sausages for herself and Profumo before they had sex in front of the television – described as ‘a very, very well-mannered screw of convenience’. When Profumo was warned by the security services of the liaison between Keeler and Ivanov, he wrote to Keeler to cool their affair. All was quiet until December 1962, when Johnny Edgecombe, one of Keeler’s former lovers, was involved in a heavily publicised scuffle with Keeler and her friend Mandy Rice-Davies at Ward’s London flat. Up until this point, reports on Profumo’s dalliance had been limited to a single oblique reference in a society magazine. The press attention following the scuffle awoke Keeler to the potential scale of interest in her story, for which the Sunday Pictorial offered her £1,000. Fearing legal action, the Pictorial initially held back from publication, and the explosive story linking the secretary of state for war, a showgirl and a Soviet military attaché was unleashed instead by Westminster Confidential, a newsletter with a small but powerful readership. Its article appeared on 8 March 1963, headlined, ‘That was the government that was!’ and asking, ‘Who was using the call-girl to milk whom of information – the war secretary or the Soviet military attaché?’ It took a week for the mainstream press to begin nibbling at the bait. On 15 March the Express ran the headline, ‘War minister shock – Profumo: He asks to resign for personal reasons and Macmillan asks him to stay on’, printing next to it an article on Keeler’s disappearance during Edgecombe’s trial: ‘Vanished – Old Bailey witness’. At 3am on 22 March, Profumo, drowsy from sleeping pills he had taken to drown out the noise of journalists outside his Chester Terrace house, was summoned to the chief whip’s office in Westminster. He denied the allegations and prepared a statement to be read to the Commons. In it, he admitted to knowing Ward, Keeler and Ivanov, but insisted that there was ‘no impropriety whatsoever in my acquaintanceship with Miss Keeler’, and warned that he would ‘not hesitate to issue writs for libel and slander if scandalous allegations are made or repeated outside this House’. This was, of course, a bluff, and on 5 April, Keeler confirmed the affair to the police. Ward foresaw the damage to his own reputation and informed the prime minister Harold Macmillan’s private secretary that Profumo had lied. Harold Wilson, leader of the Labour opposition, visited Macmillan, advising him that the ] TATLER
POINT OF VIEW Natalie Livingstone at Cliveden. Above left, Bronwen, Viscountess Astor, at Cliveden during a showing of Norman Hartnell’s autumn/ winter fashion collection in 1962. Above right, Bill and Bronwen Astor on their wedding day, 1960
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IN TOO DEEP Spring Cottage at Cliveden. Below left, John Profumo arrives at the House of Commons, 1962. Right, Christine Keeler (back right) and friends with Stephen Ward, 1961
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[episode could constitute a serious breach of national security. By the second week of June, Profumo had resigned as a minister and MP, and Ward was behind bars in Brixton prison, charged with living off immoral earnings from Keeler and Rice-Davies. When Rice-Davies refused to help the police with their investigation of Ward, she was held at Holloway on a minor motoring offence, with her bail set at £2,000 (about £43,000 today). In prison, she was body-searched. Unsurprisingly, she soon agreed to co-operate. At Ward’s trial, the prosecution accused him of plumbing ‘the very depths of lechery and depravity’. The prosecution was a tissue of misrepresentations and downright untruths, but that did not matter: Ward’s friends and clients had been cajoled into testifying against him, and the ranks of the political establishment, grateful for the scapegoat, had closed against him. He took an overdose the night before the guilty verdict was delivered and died on 3 August 1963. Macmillan resigned in October and the Conservative Party lost the following year’s general election. Cliveden became central to my life when my husband acquired the property, and I began to discover more about the history of the house that, in many people’s minds, forms an adjunct to this famous swimming pool. The events of the early 1960s, I realised, were nothing new for Cliveden. Time and again, the estate has been at the centre of scandals and political machinations that have defined or destabilised the nation. It was built in 1666 as a monument to a national scandal. The Duke of Buckingham had taken the Earl of Shrewsbury’s wife, Anna Maria, as his mistress. Buckingham challenged Shrewsbury to a duel – and fought him to the death. He claimed Anna Maria as
Art imitating life
his prize and commissioned an estate to be built on high ground overlooking the Thames. It is an imperious presence, its grounds stretching dramatically down to the water’s edge. Over the centuries, it has burnt down twice, and been reshaped, repurposed and re-imagined countless times. It has been a home, a university, a romantic ruin, a salon and a hospital. Now it serves a commercial purpose as a hotel. Wi-fi and 21st-century wiring weave along 17th-century tunnels, and during the recent renovation of the historic ‘sounding chamber’ beneath the terrace, the noise of contemporary restoration work was amplified by the architectural acoustics of the Restoration. It has always been this way at Cliveden: towers sprouting, configurations shifting, wings being added and new amenities constructed. The contemporary additions always find unexpected rhymes and echoes in the built legacies of previous owners. Everything changes, yet nothing does. That much is also true of the women whose lives have played out at the house. Between the 1660s and the 1960s, women’s position in society was transformed, and yet so much remained unaltered. Were Anna Maria and Christine Keeler so very different? Both were from marginalised backgrounds – Anna Maria a Catholic in the 17th century, and Keeler a working-class woman in the 20th. Both had traumatic early encounters with men, Keeler surviving sexual assault and Anna Maria being married off at a young age to a man nearly two decades her senior. Both remained dependent on the fortunes and affections of powerful men. Sex was their only currency. Anna Maria never made it to Cliveden. While Buckingham lived out his days in the palace he had built as a monument to ]
The Profumo affair on stage and screen. By ELIZ AKDENIZ
Scandal (1989)
Stephen Ward (2013)
The most famous on-screen adaptation of the Profumo affair appeared in the late 1980s. Starring Joanne Whalley, Ian McKellen and John Hurt, Scandal was praised for its well-researched account of events, and critics were bowled over – The Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw wrote in 2017 about Hurt’s ‘utterly superb’ performance, in which he ‘absolutely nailed a role that he had basically to invent or imagine from scratch’. Whalley’s uncanny resemblance to Keeler was another key factor. The film was a success and made a profit of more than £3 million.
The scandal took to the stage in 2013, with Christopher Hampton and lyricist Don Black at the helm. The production focused on, and was narrated by, the character of Stephen Ward, but received mixed reviews after its world premiere at the Aldwych Theatre in London. Critics applauded Alexander Hanson’s portrayal of the protagonist, despite his having to reckon with songs full of forced wordplay and an overall cartoony production. Seasoned musical-theatre composer Andrew Lloyd-Webber wrote 23 original songs for the piece, which had a budget of £2.5 million.
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The Trial of Christine Keeler (2019) The BBC’s six-part dramatisation of the Profumo affair, seen through the eyes of Keeler, was the first major television production on the subject. Written by the Bafta-winning screenwriter and novelist Amanda Coe, the series hit screens in 2019, making the affair a hot topic again. Television critics, film buffs and binge-watchers alike were gripped by the show’s riotous depictions of high-society London in the 1960s. As Carol Midgley wrote in The Times: ‘It is a handsome production; I’d watch it just for the 1960s frocks.’ 85
Under the guardianship of each fascinating chatelaine, Cliveden mirrored the changing contours of society. Conceived shortly after the Stuart Restoration, the estate later served as a counter-court during the power struggles of the Hanoverian dynasty, and in the 19th century became a crucible for a new brand of Liberal politics. With the decline of aristocratic wealth, it was one of the first houses to be taken over by American plutocrats. It is now part of a more complicated, democratic and meritocratic reality, in which my husband and I, Jewish and self-made, play our part. The pool still sits within a splendid private walled garden, but it now borders National Trust land, accessible to all. In the years since my husband acquired Cliveden, I’ve often reflected on the women who shaped and were shaped by the house. Christine Keeler may not have lived here, but the story of her interaction with the house is perhaps the most poignant of them all. In the summer of 1961, when Keeler stepped out of the pool, society was on the cusp of change. The Lady Chatterley trial had taken place only the previous year, and, according to Larkin, the beginning of ‘sexual intercourse’ was still two years off. The Profumo affair played its part in hastening the changes that would come to define the decade, and the years leading up to the turn of Christine Keeler in 1989 with her son, Seymour Platt
The son who loved her
One man remained loyal to Christine all her life – her son, Seymour By LEAF ARBUTHNOT
Christine Keeler’s son, Seymour Platt, grew up in his mother’s pocket. ‘Chris’, as Platt knew the siren at the heart of the Profumo scandal, was convinced her child would be taken away from her, so she took him with her everywhere. On work trips as far as Brazil. To pubs and shabby World’s End flats in Chelsea, where Keeler would pick up the small quantities of cannabis she liked to smoke on occasion, while ‘Seems’, as 86
she called her son, scuffed his trainers on the carpet. Four years on from Keeler’s death at 75, Platt is fighting to clear his mother’s name. In 1963, after a roiling few months in which her tryst with the war minister John Profumo helped bring down the government, Keeler pleaded guilty to perjury. She was sentenced to nine months and ended up serving six in Holloway prison, where an IQ test found
that she was highly intelligent. But in the Commons before her imprisonment, Keeler had either been presented as a possible threat to national security, or dismissed as a ‘poor little slut’ and ‘dirty little prostitute’ who had no idea what she was doing. Years after the scandal, Keeler had trouble remembering what the sex with Profumo had even been like – the affair had been a flash in the pan for both of them, and yet it branded them for life. Platt, a business analyst, lives in Ireland with his wife and daughter. He’s an amiable character, eager to please and slightly bouncy. ‘What you must remember is that my mother was very loving,’ he tells me. ‘When you have a parent who dotes on you, as she did with me, it gives you terrific confidence.’ It’s clear that however reclusive Keeler was – she never truly recovered from the scandal – she set her son up beautifully. Platt was born 10 years after the affair shook the British establishment to its core. While the world remembers his mother as Christine Keeler, Platt knew her as Christine Sloane. She chose the surname on impulse while walking through Chelsea, in an attempt to shed the toxic associations of her old name. In the first few years of his life, Platt says, the going for their family was relatively good. ‘Chris was quite well off, she had a flat in Tite Street, then everything TATLER
PHOTOGRAPHS: ALLSTAR; ANDREW LLOYD-WEBBER; COURTESY OF CLIVEDEN; COURTESY OF SEYMOUR PLATT; EXPRESS/GETTY IMAGES; GEORGE ELAM/DAILY MAIL/SHUTTERSTOCK; HULTON ARCHIVE/GETTY IMAGES; LMK; LOTTIE DAVIES; RON CASE/KEYSTONE/HULTON ARCHIVE/GETTY IMAGES; SHUTTERSTOCK
[their affair, she was exiled to a convent in France. After the scandal that came to bear his name, Profumo managed to rehabilitate himself: he left politics and eventually earned a CBE for his services to charity. Christine Keeler, meanwhile, was casually branded a prostitute, and denied the opportunity to escape her reputation. The famous portrait by Lewis Morley, in which she sits nude astride a copy of an Arne Jacobsen chair, concealed a darker reality. A decade later, she described how in the aftermath of the trial, ‘I was not living, I was surviving.’ And yet throughout Cliveden’s history, women have also thrived at the house. It has been a safe space for female management, creativity and independence. For several decades in the 18th century, it served as a haven for Elizabeth, Countess of Orkney, an extraordinary intellect and political tactician. In the middle of the following century, Queen Victoria visited on several occasions, sounding out Harriet, Duchess of Sutherland about her thoughts and plans. To its 20th-century mistress Nancy Astor, Cliveden was a nerve centre from which political alliances were formed and a route to Westminster planned. In the 1930s, her use of the house as a power base led to it becoming indelibly associated with her most troubling political cause: the appeasement of Hitler.
the century. It may have begun with some splashing about in a pool, but its impact constituted a veritable tidal wave. Until the early 1960s, political life in Britain still bore the marks of its pre-democratic past. The country was run by an elite whose public utterances and policies often stood in stark contrast to their private behaviour, but who were protected from public criticism by gentlemen’s agreements that still prevailed on country estates, in London clubland, and, for the most part, on Fleet Street. Profumo’s downfall – which notably was brought about not by the affair itself, but because he lied about it – played a role in tearing down those invisible walls beyond which the press would not venture. It was no longer considered irrelevant or improper to ask questions and demand answers about conduct beyond the debating chamber. But the legacies of the Profumo affair were not all so straightforwardly democratic. Both the newspaper coverage and the trials themselves were marked by a flexible relationship with the truth, and by frenzied, cynical attacks on reputation – attacks that chased Ward to his death, and overshadowed the rest of Keeler’s life. With the increasing tabloidisation of the media – only just beginning in the early 1960s, and accelerated by the digital age – both of these sad features of the Profumo affair have become all the more
went south. She left my father when I was six months old, and when I was five the taxman came after her. She was left with absolutely nothing.’ Broke and estranged from Anthony Platt, Seymour’s wealthy father, Keeler and her son moved to a council flat in a fearsome brown-brick development in World’s End. There was one lightbulb, which would be unscrewed and squirrelled from room to room. ‘There were days we wouldn’t eat,’ Platt says cheerfully. ‘If you look at pictures from the time, we both look really skinny.’ Platt met his father when he was nine, and discovered that he was living in a comfortable house in Chelsea, a short walk away. Two years later, Anthony Platt discovered that his son couldn’t read or write, and packed him off to boarding school. Platt has spent a lifetime fielding crude jokes about his mother and navigating the world as the son of one of the 20th century’s most maligned women. His suffering, however, is nothing to the horrors Keeler endured in the years up to and following her imprisonment. She was brought up by her mother and stepfather in a pair of converted railway carriages near Heathrow, with no electricity or hot water and virtually no money. Her stepfather and his friends sexually abused her – ‘to what level I don’t know’, Platt says – and she left TATLER
commonplace. And in spite of the enormous progress that has been made with women’s rights, the gaze on a latter-day Keeler in certain sections of the media would surely be just as judgmental and lascivious now as it was in 1963. As for Cliveden, this home of numerous brilliant women, a meeting place for the great and the good, and a place that has housed and inspired writers from Alexander Pope and Jonathan Swift to Winston Churchill and TE Lawrence, is still known best for its swimming pool. Perhaps that needn’t be such a bad thing. The pool reflects a very human story, that, for me, is first and foremost about a vulnerable woman. It reflects the changes across society in this second Elizabethan age, but also the constants. On its 60th anniversary, the Profumo affair continues to provoke and fascinate not just because it accelerated the downfall of a prime minister, but because it marked the point when private lives went public, dragging into view the hypocrisy, sex and personal fallibility that had previously remained veiled. It was a moment in which truths were exposed and democratic adjustments made, but also one that initiated some worrying developments we are still grappling with. Six decades on from Keeler jumping out of the water, the surface of Bill Astor’s pool has yet to fully settle. (
school at 15 with no qualifications. She moved to London and found work as a topless showgirl in Soho. At 16, she gave birth to a premature baby, Peter, who died six days later. It was around this time that Keeler fell in with Stephen Ward, a colourful Harley Street osteopath many years older than her, who had aristocratic clients and took her to Cliveden. By the time Keeler met Profumo in 1961, she was trying to break into modelling. Those jobs dried up after the scandal, and Keeler later worked as a dry cleaner, a sex columnist and a dinner lady. She claimed employers tended to sack her the moment they learnt who she was. With Keeler and the other main players in the Profumo scandal now dead, Platt is determined to secure some form of posthumous dignity for his mother, whose greatest regret wasn’t the affair, but the fact that she was sent to jail. ‘She thought it was unfair,’ Platt says. His application for a pardon has been spearheaded by lawyer James Harbridge, working pro bono. Picking over the details now, it’s hard not to agree with Platt that it was unfair Keeler went to jail. She was accused of perjury after she was assaulted by Lucky Gordon, a jazz singer she’d met in 1961. In April 1963, he attacked her, and was jailed for assault, but his conviction was overturned when two witnesses to the attack were unearthed who contradicted Keeler’s account. She was barely out of
her teens at the time, and probably accepted the perjury charge out of sheer exhaustion. ‘She pleaded guilty because she was Christine Keeler,’ Platt says. She was not the dishonest sexpot the papers painted her as, he insists, but a vulnerable woman who had been raped, beaten and vilified. Platt accepts that attitudes have moved on since the scandal, but believes there’s a way to go. ‘We still blame the girls,’ he says. Part of his motivation in trying to secure a pardon for Keeler is to show his 12-year-old daughter that historic injustices against women needn’t stand. ‘I want her to live in a better world.’ Keeler’s death has brought clarity to her story for Platt – alive, she would have hated being called a victim, but Platt sees she evidently was. ‘The Profumo story isn’t understood because people didn’t understand Christine’s motivations. She just wanted to get away from Lucky Gordon. She would go to anyone who could help her. But all the men she went to wanted to take the information she had, and destroy other people with it.’ In an interview in 1989 to promote the film Scandal, Christine Keeler told the BBC: ‘Probably, after what I went through, I was too insecure emotionally to properly really love anybody.’ It’s clear, however, that she did love and was loved steadily by one man: the son seeking to clear her name, all these years later. 87
Cabinet chronicles During his Conservative career, Sir Alan Duncan had a front-row seat for the theatrics of Westminster, which he recalled in his tell-all political diaries. Sacha Forbes meets him and his husband, James Dunseath, at home – a tranquil setting for fiery opinions Photographs by Philip Sinden
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HOME FRONT Sir Alan Duncan and James Dunseath outside their house in Rutland
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WELL HEELED Sir Alan Duncan at home with his cockapoo, Noodle
‘I’VE GOT TO SHOW YOU AROUND, let’s go on a tour,’ says Sir Alan Duncan, as I arrive at the house in Rutland where he has lived for 30 years, and now shares with his husband, James Dunseath. Alan – who has, in his time, been Boris Johnson’s number two in the Foreign Office, a friend to Margaret Thatcher, the first openly gay Conservative member of parliament and the author of one of the most sensational, no-holds-barred political diaries of the decade – looks younger than his 64 years, brimming with charm as he gestures to me to follow him inside his newly converted barn. 90
The barn, just across the drive from the main house, is light and painted in bold colours, with elegant stone fireplaces, a Provençal tablecloth in the kitchen (picked up in St Tropez) and a reassuringly well-stocked bar. ‘James likes to think that he did it all, but actually I was very involved, too,’ Alan says, smiling. It helped that James is great friends with the interiordesign duo Louisa Greville-Williams and Sarah Vanrenen – ‘always good for a sounding board’, he says. The library’s dark green bookcase, full of political tomes, covers a wall. Upstairs, the bedrooms have the feel of an immaculate boutique hotel.
As we settle at a table in the hallway of the barn, I am told the story of how Alan and James met: they were introduced by mutual friends at a dinner at The Dorchester’s China Tang in 2006. ‘Alan arrived slightly late,’ says James, and announced on arrival ‘that he had been at drinks with Maggie – and at that time, I had no idea who Maggie was’. Which meant that James was only semi-amused by Baroness Thatcher’s name being dropped. The dinner was, however, a coup de foudre, James concedes, sealed with their civil partnership in 2008. Growing up, their backgrounds were not dissimilar. Alan’s father was a wing commander in the RAF, and was posted, with his wife and young family (Alan and his two brothers), to Gibraltar, Oslo and Naples. James’s father retired as a colonel in the British Army. James was born in Gibraltar, and the family (he has a twin sister, Louisa, and an older sister, Catherine) then had a succession of postings, to Northern Ireland, Nigeria and America. ‘I spent my 10th birthday at the Grand Canyon,’ says James. ‘Mum and Dad were so adventurous, we were always travelling around America.’ Dark-haired James, 52, is engaging, warm and quick-witted. Serena Snowdon, his friend of more than 30 years, tells me: ‘James is the one person you can always rely on to have a great time with.’ Meanwhile, Alan is an entertaining mix of outspoken, charming, opinionated, passionate about the Middle East and its culture, and a devoted partner to James. Alan was elected as MP for Rutland and Melton in 1992, and has held seven shadow cabinet positions, followed by senior ministerial roles in government. He was made Minister of State for International Development by David Cameron, and Minister of State for Europe and the Americas by Theresa May. Throughout his career, he has worked hard to stick to his principles. He was part of a government that legislated for gay marriage. And he sacrificed what could have been a multimillion-pound career in oil (his first job was at Shell and he worked for several years as a consultant to foreign governments) for politics. At the beginning of 2016, Alan began keeping a diary – ‘really as a daily record so that my brain, as it gets older, doesn’t forget things’. The intention was never to publish, he says. He was approached by a literary agent to write a book on Brexit TATLER
– and it was at that point that he realised the value of the notes he had kept from 2016 to 2019, during one of the most turbulent, furious and intensely divisive times in British politics. In the Thick of It was published in April this year – arriving with a splash thanks to its serialisation in a national newspaper, which highlighted the most inflammatory observations from the book. Priti Patel was ‘a nothing person’; Boris Johnson, ‘his usual blustering self, which when analysed was flippant and shallow’. ‘I was putting my rage on the page,’ Alan explains now. Even members of high society whom Alan and James mixed with didn’t escape his acerbic prose – his spat with the Dowager Duchess of Rutland is well documented. He refers to her in his diaries as ‘Her Lack-of-Grace’. Alan was – and still is – a staunch Remainer (‘I think it’s going to be a long-term process of unfolding consequences’), and says that the duchess ‘went bonkers over Brexit – she lost her marbles’. When I ask if he is embarrassed now meeting these people whom he has been less than complimentary about, his answer is adamant: ‘No, I’m not. There are some politicians who did things that I remonstrated about in the book, and that blew hot and cold. It’s not all anti by any means – and the book in its entirety shows that more than the serialisation. Michael Gove and I have spoken since – I didn’t say anything that I wouldn’t have said to his face.’ The result was, perhaps, less of a blazeof-glory fallout than another recent political memoir by Sasha Swire. I ask how he sees himself compared to other political diarists such as Swire, Chips Channon and Alan Clark. ‘They intended to publish, didn’t they – and mine is a very different product to Sasha Swire’s,’ he says with a hint of irritation. So he’s not worried, then, that the invitations to Belvoir Castle will dry up in light of his comments? ‘Well, the current Duchess of Rutland, Emma, is a friend, and the dowager lives at the bottom of the drive, not in the castle,’ he says with a wry smile. James adds, more tactfully: ‘It was very much what he felt at the time.’ The overriding impression one gets of Alan in the diary is of someone with a ferocious ability to get things done. And his frustration with the government today is clear: ‘There’s no depth any more. It’s TATLER
just social media and sound bites, press releases. Who is actually trying to make things happen? Nobody, as far as I can see, or at least not enough.’ In the diary, a colleague suggests to Alan that he should become caretaker prime minister for two years, and I ask him what he made of that? ‘Well, if anyone is thought of as a caretaker, they are written off on day one,’ he laughs. ‘It’s quite a fun dream, isn’t it?’ There is a lot he would have done differently, including sacking all the special advisers. And as for the most infamous adviser of them all: ‘Dominic Cummings is a maniac, a complete and
utter maniac. He seemed to think he knew better than everybody else on every single topic, and therefore, because he sat in No 10, was entitled to shout and scream and tell people what to do. He was given too much power and authority and it should never have been allowed.’ But Alan reserves praise for his former Foreign Office colleague Boris Johnson and his handling of the pandemic: ‘I actually think his force of personality was a very important strength in making the country think about lockdown and how to tackle this. And of course, there was his own illness. These are very difficult ]
LEADING LADIES Alan Duncan meeting the Queen, 2002. Below, with Baroness Thatcher at Belvoir Castle
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others’. He also has a warm relationship with the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall, having accompanied them abroad in his capacity as foreign minister. Our conversation turns to the recent turmoil within the Royal Family and I ask what his advice would be for Prince Harry. After a considered pause, he says: ‘I think, find a way of doing what you want to do, without either self-pity or criticising your own family. Remember, you are only able to make money because you are a royal, but if you criticise your own, you are essentially undermining yourself forever.’ Alan accompanied the Prince of Wales as part of the delegation to Oman to pay respects to the Sultan of Oman after his death in 2020. He speaks highly of the late sultan and of the culture and history of the Middle East. From 2014 to 2016, he was the government’s special envoy to
‘Don’t just focus on David Cameron. There are lots of people who “text” into the top of the government’ Yemen. ‘If I have one bubbling regret and annoyance, it’s that people don’t understand the region and its history any more,’ he says. ‘I will maintain my links at the top of Gulf countries if I can, and I will continue every now and then to express an opinion on Palestine. The events of May [the outbreak of violence in the Israel/ Palestine conflict] were horrendous. I had higher hopes for Biden and his response.’ And did he have higher hopes for his own career? Having left politics, he is now working for a large commodity company, essentially doing what he did 30 years ago and content to be back in the world he knows so well. He admits in his diaries that he never asked for a ‘top job’. So did he feel fulfilled by the time he left politics? ‘Adequately fulfilled, yes,’ he says. ‘I was too conventional to go politically grubbing like everybody else after those positions. The balance of expectation and authority
in parliament has become perverse and warped. I’ve had two very interesting international jobs that I have found more satisfying than rank. I think the litmus test is that, given my time again, I would have stayed in business and gone into politics a lot later. I just think the more I was in it, the less appealing it became.’ Now, both James and Alan have more time on their hands to spend with Noodle and their families. Alan’s mother, now 90, ‘is amazing’. As James shows me around the main house, I spy Zoffany wallpaper, cosy sofas, and a grand piano covered with framed photographs from Alan’s tenure in politics. There’s a young Alan with Baroness Thatcher, Alan with the Duchess of Cornwall and a photograph of Boris Johnson – alone. Alan’s close friendship with Baroness Thatcher lasted until her death in 2013. She was also guest of honour at his 50th birthday. ‘I used to take her out for lunch four times a year, with two friends, a general and a diplomat,’ he tells me. ‘There was an amazing occasion at lunch at The Ritz, when she stood up, and the entire dining room burst into applause, such was the magnetic appeal of this amazing person.’ For a man of action, Alan doesn’t shy away from domesticity. He wanders into the hallway to announce: ‘Darling, I’ve just done the hoovering and cleaned the kitchen.’ James is a keen tennis player, they ski in winter and have long summer lunches in the middle of the wildflower meadow they planted in the garden. James is a trustee of Nevill Holt Opera, founded by their close friend David Ross, whose son, Carl, a talented musician, is now assuming responsibility for it. Their wide circle of friends includes William and Ffion Hague, Charles and Sallie Hendry and Lord Coe – who, when I ask, says: ‘They are wonderful people to call your friends, generous, funny and great hosts.’ James and Alan are regulars on the guest list at Tusmore Park, staying with Wafic Saïd; they holiday on Mustique with David Ross. It’s a busy life, but does Alan miss the cut and thrust of politics? ‘I don’t miss it at all. The day after I stood down from parliament, I woke up thinking, “I am not responsible for 100,000 people’s problems.”’ So is it a relief? ‘Yes, it is.’ ( In the Thick of It: The Private Diaries of a Minister, by Alan Duncan (£25, William Collins) TATLER
PHOTOGRAPHS: ALAMY; COURTESY OF ALAN DUNCAN
[decisions. I think he gets high marks, actually. Corbyn could never have done it. PPE didn’t work very well, but the vaccine rollout has been a triumph and that is what people will remember.’ And as for his former boss, David Cameron, and his Greensill lobbying imbroglio: ‘I think he overdid the lobbying, but I don’t think that’s a crime. Therefore, don’t just focus on Cameron. There are lots of people who “text” into the top of the government. A lot of it, I think, is rather questionable.’ In 2002, Alan made the decision to come out, which he did in an interview with The Times. ‘It was quite a solitary decision,’ he explains. ‘My theory was that once it was done, it was going to burst the dam, if you like. Actually, the reaction was amazing, and one letter I particularly remember was from a woman: “I just want to thank you. My grandson is gay and I want to thank you for making me feel respectable,” and I thought, “That will do.”’ Alan and James’s relationship is built on mutual support. Pre-pandemic, James’s role at a tech company would keep him in London part of the week. ‘Alan would be in Rutland, ready with a glass of wine and cigarettes when I arrived home on Friday evenings, and we’d go for a wander around the garden.’ A garden that, in the summer, fills with lupins, foxgloves and peonies. Alan stepped back from politics in November 2019, and since then, the pace has been very different, especially with the past year of lockdowns, which meant the couple were able to spend an unusual amount of time together. ‘Life is so different, it’s now so calm,’ says James. It’s a world away from the one described in Alan’s book – in which the sheer force of his workload stands out, with meetings, dinners and trips abroad. ‘I don’t think Alan realised how stressful it was at the time,’ says James. ‘Some of the travel alone was absurd. I think my role was just to support him.’ Voting three times a week in the House meant curtailing socialising, but they’d sometimes pop to Franco’s in Jermyn Street, walking there with Noodle, their beloved cockapoo. ‘It was a real honour to go to things like the State Opening of Parliament, the dinner for President Trump at Blenheim Palace, and the state dinners at Buckingham Palace,’ says James. ‘The British and the Queen do it amazingly well, it is so impressive.’ In his book, Alan describes the Queen as ‘a legend above all
THE GREEN, GREEN GRASS Alan and James near their house, against the scenic backdrop of the Welland Viaduct Styling: Grace Gilfeather. Grooming: Cat Legg, using Charlotte Tilbury and Bumble and Bumble products. Photographer’s assistant: Joe Conway. Creative production: Eva de Romarate
TATLER
By LILY WORCESTER
Dior SS21
Lady Lola Crichton-Stuart
fringe benefits
Margot Robbie Halle Berry
Make the cut this season
PHOTOGRAPHS: GETTY IMAGES; INSTAGRAM/@LOLABUTE, @SABINEGETTY, @HALLEBERRY; MERT ALAS AND MARCUS PIGGOTT COURTESY OF LANVIN
Fringes are high on the hair agenda now and, according to super-stylist Luke Hersheson, they work on any hair type, at any age. At this year’s Oscars, Margot Robbie dazzled on the red carpet with a Shrimptonesque fringe and chic ponytail, while Halle Berry opted for a short, angular bob and even shorter bangs. Robbie’s relaxed style of fringe is ‘flattering on pretty much everybody’, explains Hersheson, who recently gave Keira Knightley a similar cut. ‘That shape comes from Goldie Hawn and Brigitte Bardot. It’s a classic – and it’s a great way of framing your face incredibly subtly.’ Fringes are dominating the society circuit, too: Sabine Getty chopped her own during lockdown, and the result – which she revealed in a picture she posted on Instagram, wearing Chanel – is reminiscent of a 1970s-era Jane Birkin. Meanwhile, Lola Bute couples a shaggy modern mullet with grown-out curtains.
Brigitte Bardot
Paris Hilton TATLER
Sabine Getty
beauty
A new London clinic that feels more like a chic members’ club promises a natural-looking youth boost with its psychology-led, injectables-only approach By FRANCESCA WHITE
EV ERY NOW A ND THEN, a superclinic emerges that breaks the mould – a medical beauty destination that challenges the status quo, disrupts the aesthetics landscape and encourages new ways of thinking. And there’s no better moment for it than now, with the world experiencing a series of seismic shifts. Ouronyx opened its doors on St James’s Street with a soft launch in Februar y, and it has quick ly become a hot ticket. Its sudden success is no happy accident: its founders are Marc Princen, former executive vice-president and president of international business at Allergan, maker of Botox, and Ida Banek, an entrepreneur and professor of psychology. Together, this powerhouse pair have scrutinised every element of the patient journey to create something truly ground-breaking. ‘We didn’t want Ouronyx to look like a clinic,’ Princen says. ‘It’s about how the patient interacts with space – and how they feel when they walk in.’ Spanning two floors and 8,500 square feet clad in pale Italian 96
There is no formal reception desk – in its place is a sleek bar. Think Soho House meets Kelly Wearstler interior design stone, Ouronyx does look more like an art gallery than a clinic. Digital works by the British artist Dominic Harris hang on white walls – in one, a cloud of black and gold butterflies follows visitors as they descend the sleek staircase – while living moss grows inside columns in hues of green and pink. On the lower-ground floor, six treatment rooms with curving walls and tan leather beds spiral off a central atrium, where
post-procedure touch-ups are administered by make-up artists at brightly lit mirrors. Checking into Ouronyx is like entering a private members’ club. Patients are met at the door by the concierge team and led into a vast, light-filled space. There is no formal reception desk – in its place is a sleek bar. Nor is there a waiting room – instead, mid-century armchairs and low-slung sofas are arranged in small clusters (think
Soho House meets Kelly Wearstler interior design), where patients can sip cappuccinos and discuss treatment options with their doctor. ‘The upstairs floor is designed for the first consultation,’ Banek explains. ‘However, if a patient simply wants to sit there and have a coffee, that’s fine.’ The greatest point of difference between Ouronyx and its competitors, though, is not its design but rather its injectables-only TATLER
PHOTOGRAPH: DAVID BURTON/TRUNK ARCHIVE
beauty
approach. You won’t find medicalgrade facials, micro-needling or skin-tightening here – just facial injectables and an insistence on natural-looking results. ‘If a wonderful machine comes along for the face or neck, we will probably buy it,’ says Princen. ‘But it doesn’t yet exist. So we bank on what is solid and durable – and that’s Botox and fillers.’ There’s not just one doctor in residence, but several: Ouronyx ha s scooped some big-na me aestheticians from across the UK (Dr Raj Acquilla, Dr Sabika Karim and Dr Nestor Demosthenous), TATLER
STYLE INJECTION Ouronyx looks more like an art gallery than a clinic
as well as overseas (Dr Iman Nurlin from Sweden). Each will drop in for a number of days at a time, or by appointment. Having so many personalities under one roof could be tricky, but Princen and Banek are both adamant that collaboration, not competition, is key. ‘W hen you work a s a team, you achieve better results,’ says Banek. ‘We want to elevate aesthetics – but also make it accessible: to show patients that they can have a high-quality treatment and not be afraid of the outcome.’ After all, the greatest barrier to trying injectables is the fear of an unnatural-looking result – something that Ouronyx aims to break down, with its focus on psychology (a simple psychometric test will determine a patient’s key aims, as well as their fears and personality, to inform their treatment plan). Technology also plays a role: the clinic uses a state-of-the-art 3D visualisation system – the first of its kind in the UK – that measures skin thickness, collagen levels, fat and muscle. ‘It means we can show the patient, through the most precise graphs and measurements, their progress: for example, how much collagen was restored, the improvement in wrinkle depth or the reduction of sagginess,’ says Princen. Not forgetting the video equipment in each room, enabling treatment to be filmed and saved to each patient’s profile for future reference (or even streamed live to the flatscreen TV at the end of the bed, should you wish to watch). This intelligent data combines to form a precise blueprint, allowing the doctors to determine how best to treat patients in a way that addresses their psychological, anatomical and emotional goals, all of which are the benchmark of a good aesthetic procedure. More important, it demystif ies the treatment journey, and gives the patient a road map – so that they feel in control. Ouronyx is more than a clinic, it’s a movement: towards patient education, but also empowerment. That’s what makes it super. (
NEW GENERATION CLINICS THE TAKTOUK CLINIC With parquet flooring and a chic sitting room, Dr Wassim Taktouk’s elegant new premises just off Sloane Street feels like the Instagram-famous doctor’s own home. He has assembled a crack team of visiting specialists, including Dr Judy Todd and laser whizz Dr Firas Al-Niaimi. Get in line. drwassimtaktouk.com DR JONQUILLE CHANTREY Cosmetic doctor Jonquille Chantrey has a new London home in the Selfridges Beauty Workshop, in partnership with SkinCeuticals. Find the former surgeon there, administering her sought-after injectables and skin-perfecting treatments. oneaestheticstudio.com DR PREEMA VIG Acclaimed aesthetician Dr Preema Vig has taken up residence on Park Lane. Her new clinic is vast, with six treatment rooms housing her arsenal of body-perfecting devices, with views across Hyde Park. Expect diamanté, endless arrangements of white roses, and CGI blue ‘skylights’ complete with drifting white clouds. drpreema.com DR BARBARA STURM The Düsseldorf-based doctor’s product line already has a cult following – and Dr Sturm’s new clinic on Mayfair’s Mount Street is set to follow suit. Inside, it’s spaceship-sleek, with a green onyx ‘discovery table’ of skincare, two rooms for express treatments and four subterranean spa suites, where therapists administer high-end facials and MyoLift microcurrent sessions. Dreamy. drsturm.com NATALI KELLY Tucked between the tiny boutiques of Walton Street in Knightsbridge, Natali Kelly’s space looks as if it has come straight from the pages of an interiors magazine. Georgian panelling and mid-century furniture bring refinement. A downstairs space for reiki healing, crystal readings and yoga ensures good vibes all round. natalikelly.com 97
beauty
THE HOT LIST
1
Lily Worcester reveals her top products to get you set for summer
1 THE FRAGRANCE
5 THE MASK-PROOF LIP
Rouge Dior Forever Liquid in Forever Star 741, £32, by Dior Want to stop your perfectly applied lipstick from smudging every time you put on your mask? This matte formula from Dior will give you a showstopping pout – and, crucially, it won’t budge. dior.com
2
The Alchemist’s Garden 1921 eau de parfum, £240 for 100ml, by Gucci In celebration of its 100th year, Gucci has created an elegant neroli flower scent with the addition of the zesty limone cedrato fruit from Florence – a nod to the house’s birthplace. net-a-porter.com
6 THE CAR SCENT
2 THE ILLUMINATOR
V-Lighter Dual-Use Liquid Light Face Base and Top Coat, £46, by Valentino Under the watchful eye of creative director Pierpaolo Piccioli, Valentino has launched its first make-up collection. This hydrating, pearlescent formula can be worn as a primer under foundation or as a highlighter for a luminous glow. selfridges.com
4
3
6 5
3 THE CURL ENHANCER
Curl Manifesto Masque Beurre Haute Nutrition, £36.40, by Kérastase Part of a seven-piece line developed to care for wavy, curly and coily hair types, this masque is powered by manuka honey, ceramides and glycerin. It hydrates and nourishes fragile hair, resulting in defined, glossy curls. kerastase.co.uk 4 THE SKINCARE HYBRID
Hyalu B5 Aquagel SPF30, £34, by La Roche-Posay Streamline your morning routine with this silky blue gel. Not only does it protect against sun damage, but it’s also packed with antioxidants, is wonderfully hydrating and provides a brilliant base for make-up. boots.com 98
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Airound Car Diffuser, £135, by Acqua di Parma x Poltrona Frau The chicest companion for your next road trip, this leather-bound car diffuser comes from the experts in Italian sophistication. Clip it onto the vent of your vehicle and allow the air to flow through the scented beads, filling the car with a fragrance that whispers of aperitivi and Italian lakes. Bellissima. harrods.com 7 THE ALL-OVER OIL
Huile Prodigieuse Néroli Multi-Purpose Dry Oil, £29.50, by Nuxe The much-loved French pharmacy brand has launched a new iteration of its cult dry oil, scented with neroli and bergamot, and housed in a chic green glass bottle. Smooth onto the body, face and hair for an all-over glow. uk.nuxe.com 8 THE LIP & CHEEK TINT
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BeachPlease Tinted Balm in Happy Hour, £18, by Tower 28 This cool Californian make-up brand has been designed specifically for those with sensitive and eczema-prone skin. Tap this novice-proof, highly pigmented tint (which comes in a palette of flattering tones) onto the lips and cheeks for a convincing no-makeup effect. cultbeauty.co.uk TATLER
stars
give yourself a well-earned break. The tempo changes from 23 July, when Mars and Venus, planets of romance, could bring an important breakthrough. Some major changes in your private life are on the horizon.
ARIES
Your family and home life come first as July begins, helping you to focus on your deepest personal bonds. All that is due to change around 23 July, when a more outgoing and dynamic phase begins. All you need to do to overcome resistance to ambitious plans that you were forced to shelve is stand your ground and be yourself. Take a confident, upbeat approach.
TAURUS
The New Moon in your chart’s communication zone on 9 July is due to help you win support for a new project, so don’t hesitate to open up and share your real ambitions. From 23 July, a close relationship takes centre stage. It could change your life on many levels in the years to come. Don’t hedge your bets this time around. All you need to do is be yourself.
GEMINI
Your finances could preoccupy you early in the month, but don’t let existing problems make you overcautious. If you allow events to unfold instead of trying to take control, you will reach a more secure position. Support from someone close later in the month is due to help you turn a tricky situation to your own advantage. There is no need to stand alone.
CANCER
The New Moon in your sign on July 9 helps you to leave behind a situation that you have outgrown and take a much more positive approach towards the future. There is no need to limit your horizons, as you will discover if you make the opening move midmonth. An unexpected conversation gives you food for thought around 21 July. It seems you hold a winning hand. ( 99
Walking on sunshine
Summer in Switzerland has the best of both worlds – pretty cities with vibrant art shows and music festivals, a buzzing food and wine scene, and outdoor pursuits in Alpine lakes, mountains and sun-drenched local vineyards
Jet d’Eau, Geneva
BREATHTAKING NATURAL BEAUTY IS never far away when you stay in a Swiss city. An abundance of glacial freshwater lakes and rivers, stunning mountains and dense forests lie within easy reach, while swimming, boating, hiking and wine tasting at local vineyards form the foundations of summer fun. Accompanying these thrills are endless metropolitan pleasures for fine living: luxe hotels, excellent restaurants, lively lakeside bars and world-class artists wooing audiences to seek out dynamic new perspectives. Timeless yet contemporary, Switzerland is the epitome of happy holidays all year long.
As diverse as Swiss culture is its exquisite variety of wines, made from 252 types of grape. These are so popular with residents that as little as one per cent is exported. Vineyards are located in six wine regions, including Vaud & Geneva on Lake Geneva’s shores, which cultivates the Chasselas grape for fresh and fruity white wines, and produces red wines from the Gamay and Pinot Noir varieties. Another is Ticino on the south side of the Alps facing Italy, where the altitude suits the cultivation of Merlot. These and so many more superlative flavours and aromas await discovery.
GRAPE EXPECTATIONS Wine dégustation in the Lake Geneva Region
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AIR AND GRACE Clockwise from top left, Vaud Museum of Fine Arts; Lausanne city centre; Palais de Rumine; lakeside garden in Ouchy; view over Lausanne
Lausanne
Romantic, laid-back Lausanne – voted the world’s Best Small City in 2020 – has always attracted the most iconic of creative minds. Coco Chanel lived here, cherishing a view she had seen ‘nowhere else’, and David Bowie hunkered down in the impressive Château du Signal for 15 years, marrying the SomalianAmerican model Iman at the Town Hall. Glancing over the ripples of Lake Geneva to the mountains beyond, the charm of their favoured choice of residence is obvious. There is so much to do, or not do, in Lausanne, and even a 1.5-kilometre stretch of beaches to soak up the rays and sail, waterski and paddleboard. Looking towards the city, the gothic spires of Lausanne Cathedral rise above all else, surrounded by the historical quarter – known as the Cité – with its medieval alleyways. Worship has taken place on this site since the 13th century and concerts are staged within its incredible interior, which has a world-class organ created in 2003 with more than 7,000 pipes.
An illustrious history can also be appreciated at The Olympic Museum on the banks of Lake Geneva. Lausanne has been home to the International Olympic Committee for 100 years, and here it presents the story of the Games through 150 screens and 1,500 objects. Not to be outdone, the Palais de Rumine is a museum with thousands of exhibits exploring geology, zoology, archaeology and history. The building was decorated in the Florentine Renaissance style with sumptuous interiors. Most strikingly, the Vaud Museum of Fine Arts (MCBA) has an equally venerable pedigree, but its collection of 10,000 works is housed in vast, innovative spaces inside the new Plateforme 10, designed with almost monastic modernism. Adjacent to the train station, it houses fine art, photography, design and textiles,
For fresh air, take a walk through the Unesco-listed Lavaux vineyard terraces close to the city – crisscrossed with marked trails, all with stunning views over the Alps
and is described as ‘the most dynamic museum complex ever to be built in Switzerland’. For fresh air, take a walk through the Unescolisted Lavaux vineyard terraces close to the city. These are crisscrossed with marked trails – there are even little trains to help on steeper inclines – with stunning views over the Alps. To finish the day in local style, restaurant Pinte Besson serves excellent Swiss dishes made with local ingredients in a lively downtown quarter of Lausanne near Place de la Riponne. Founded in 1780, the restaurant’s interior, with vaulted stone roof, seems to buzz with the satisfaction of generations of happy diners. ( NEED TO KNOW Where to eat Anne-Sophie Pic’s luxurious restaurant in the Beau-Rivage Palace hotel overlooks the calming waters of Lake Geneva. Where to stay Enjoy old-school ritz and modern luxury at the Lausanne Palace – a stunningly elegant Belle Époque hotel. What to buy A box of truffles or hot chocolate mix from the legendary vintage-fronted Blondel in the rue de Bourg is a heavenly take-home gift.
Montreux Riviera
There is no better way to start the day than on the Unesco-listed Lavaux vineyard terraces west of Montreux, learning about viticulture while drinking in the breathtaking views of Lake Geneva, the vines and the mountains. This is the experience to enjoy when visiting the Domaine Christophe Chappuis winery, established in 1335, followed by a tasting and a delicious meal. Every Tuesday and Saturday, local ingredients come to the lake shore on the Grande Place in nearby Vevey. Here, farmers and locals meet, and the atmosphere positively effervesces with conversation and catch-up banter. Also in Vevey, menu modernity can be savoured at restaurant Denis Martin, housed in
the Confrérie des Vignerons Château. The refined food presentation resembles art, with the complexity of tastes winning the chef a Michelin star. For cocktails, Le Deck at Le Baron Tavernier has a chic terrace with exalted views of the lake and mountains beyond. The landscape has long inspired artists. Charlie Chaplin spent much of his life here and the city is famous for its 16-day Montreux Jazz Festival. The town is also notable for its connection with Freddie Mercury. The charismatic Queen frontman owned a lakeside recording studio, where six of the band’s albums were recorded. As well as an impressive bronze statue of Mercury by Lake Geneva, there are Freddie Tours and evenings with Peter Freestone, his
The landscape inspires artists – Charlie Chaplin spent much of his life here and the city is famous for its Jazz Festival and its connection with Freddie Mercury
A KIND OF MAGIC Dubbed the ‘Montreux Riviera’ thanks to its microclimate, this magnificent region stretches from Lutry to Villeneuve in the Canton of Vaud
personal assistant for more than 10 years. To relax at the end of a day, the Trois Couronnes Hotel has pretty five-star luxury accommodation and a restaurant specialising in Alpine cuisine. Equally fine is the Grand Hôtel du Lac, with traditional, elegant rooms and calming views of the lake from its balconies. ( NEED TO KNOW Where to eat Le Pont de Brent has earnt two Michelin stars for its cuisine, sourced from regional products and served in a beautiful village house located just above Montreux. Where to stay With 236 rooms, Fairmont Le Montreux Palace has delighted visitors for more than a century with its Belle Époque architecture. What to buy Accessories at Boutique Liberty, which stocks an array of well-loved brands such as Longchamp, along with more niche Euro fashionable must-haves.
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WATCH THIS SPACE Clockwise from far left, the Rhône flows through Geneva; Philippe Pascoet chocolate shop in Carouge; Hotel Beau Rivage Geneva; Gübelin Jewellery Splendid Feather ring; Patek Philippe In-line Perpetual Calendar
Geneva
Renowned for being the centre of watchmaking and banking, Geneva is a sensational summer retreat. Beautifully entwined with its natural surroundings, it’s possible to have an ice cream at the foot of the famous Jet d’Eau and after a short bike ride find yourself in the middle of the countryside for a stroll through vineyards. To relax in the city itself, the city beach, the Bains des Pâquis, is just a few metres from the Jet d’Eau and offers a splendid view of Lake Geneva. If you’re feeling really daring, there’s a 10m diving board, but perhaps it’s better to people-watch from a sunbed and enjoy the balmy Mediterranean climate. A popular place to walk is in Geneva’s Botanical Garden, where you can see a collection of more than 12,000 species of plants gathered since 1817. There are tropical greenhouses to wander through and peacocks to watch posing. Heritage has benefitted Geneva’s oldest park, Parc des Eaux-Vives, where mature trees and large lawns offer a space for meditation – and its manor house is a great spot for a drink, with its views of the lake and the Jura mountains.
On higher ground, Geneva’s vineyards offer many walking trails and places to eat and drink, such as the Dugerdil Estate, and small familyrun wineries such as Domaine du Paradis and Cave de Genève in Satigny. It’s fun to learn about the wine-making process from the owners and feel the passion for what they do. The buzz of the city is never far away though. Marvel at the jewels and watches on rue du Rhône. The world looks to Geneva for watchmaking excellence and to learn more, head to the Patek Philippe Museum, located in the heart of the Plainpalais district, which showcases the maker’s horological mastery over five centuries. Next door, on the Plaine de Plainpalais, one of Switzerland’s largest flea
The Botanical Garden has 12,000 species of plants, tropical greenhouses and peacocks to watch posing
markets bustles into life twice a week with brica-brac, books, clothes, jewellery, antiques and decorative items ripe for browsing. As Switzerland’s largest historical city, Geneva’s Old Town is dominated by St Peter’s Cathedral, around which run small cobblestone streets and little squares. Carouge is similar in atmosphere but perhaps more bohemian, with its feel of a small Italian village and abundance of cafés, bars and shady terraces. Drinks among the contemporary art crowd cause a buzz during Nuit des Bains, which takes place three times a year, when galleries open their doors in Quartier des Bains and all attendees put themselves on display too. The Mamco is the official heart of contemporary art in Geneva. The largest gallery of its kind in Switzerland, it has an internationally renowned collection of some 4,000 works. Worldly artistic pleasures can be seen at Geneva’s Opera House, in a stunning building inspired by the Palais Garnier in Paris. Built in 1760, after more conservative Calvanistic
sensibilities were overcome, the present theatre was rebuilt after a fire in 1951, and benefits from excellent acoustics. Expect a full, wellregarded programme of operas, ballets and recitals every season. The seasons define much of the food scene in Geneva, which is well served by its 12 Michelinstarred restaurants. French chef Dominique Gauthier favours seasonal ingredients at Le Chat-Botté in the five-star Hotel Beau Rivage, with a plethora of Mediterranean, Swiss and French-influenced dishes and a fondness for truffles and seafood. There’s a wonderful terrace with views over the harbour, where expert
Sip sunset drinks with superb views of luxury yachts, mountains and the busy city beneath you
sommeliers can assist with wine pairings from the 40,000-strong cellar, with some particularly rare bottles waiting to be tried. Further out from the city, in bucolic countryside, you will discover Domaine De Châteauvieux, which has been awarded two stars for its contemporary French cuisine. The Michelin Guide describes head chef Philippe Chevrier as a ‘culinary technician as much as he is an artist’. Chevrier sources from the on-site vegetable gardens, and signature dishes are also often flambéd and carved at the table. Sunset drinks and nightcaps are best taken at the Metropole Hotel rooftop bar. The views are superb with luxury yachts, mountains and the busy city beneath you. The sofa seating arrangements allow parties to sit back and relax among the sophisticated crowd that flocks here. When it’s finally time to rest, the Four Seasons Hotel des Bergues sets the luxury bar very high. Founded in 1834, the hotel is a FEAST FOR THE EYES Clockwise from left, Royal Penthouse Terrace at the Mandarin Oriental; Carouge district; sailing on Lake Geneva, student at work at the Ecole d’Horlogerie; Les Bains des Pâquis
Geneva landmark, resplendent with 45 suites and 70 bedrooms designed by famed French interior designer Pierre-Yves Rochon. There’s also a dreamy rooftop Spa, and a Michelinstarred Italian restaurant, Il Lago. Five-star elegance can also be relished in the 181 rooms and 35 suites of the Mandarin Oriental, alongside the Rhône river, and close to the Old Town. Taste traditional ceviche in the Peruvian restaurant Yakumanka, and kick back at MO Bar terrace, which is a popular hang-out for locals and visitors alike. As the day ends, it’s wonderful to know that a new one awaits with so much potential to live life to the fullest in Geneva. ( NEED TO KNOW Where to eat Michelin-starred Bayview by Michel Roth within the grand Hotel President Wilson offers delicious French cuisine and mesmerising views over Lake Geneva. Where to stay The very beautiful Beau-Rivage Genève – the floral arrangements are to die for – continues to warmly welcome guests with classic five-star luxury. What to buy One of the most celebrated confectionary shops in Geneva, Auer has been making fine handmade chocolates since 1939.
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SHORE THING Clockwise from above, La Réserve Genève; Le Mirador Resort & Spa; Hotel Royal Savoy Lausanne; Lobby at Lausanne Palace; EuroCity train by Lake Geneva; Le Mirador Resort & Spa; shuttle service between La Réserve and Geneva city centre
Hotels
The Wellness & Spa hotels offer much more than just relaxation. With activity programmes on sunny paths and terraces, beauty and antiageing treatments with Swiss luxury brands, mind and body exercises to slow the pace of life, healing water, pools with a view and the finest nutritious food, you’ll find everything you need to rediscover yourself. To find out more, please visit myswitzerland.com/spa LA RÉSERVE GENÈVE
More of a resort than a city hotel with its beautiful lakeside grounds, La Réserve Genève is a place to truly feel at ease. The accommodation has a rich, refined sensibility with contemporary comforts at every turn. Its five restaurants are culinary destinations in their own right, from the signature restaurant Le Loti to the Michelin-starred eatery Chinese Tsé Fung and Le Café Lauren for health-focused cuisine. Spa Nescens offers a unique selection of antiageing treatments and is centred around its spectacular indoor pool. Experts work within 17 cabins using the Nescens and La Prairie range of products; there is also a hammam, sauna, solarium, health lounge and hairdresser, as well as a fitness club and tennis courts. The city-centre sights are only 10 minutes away on the hotel’s water taxi to the heart of Geneva. ROYAL SAVOY LAUSANNE
An Art Nouveau architectural delight, the Royal Savoy was originally built in 1909, and its stylish, luxurious decor is evident in all 196
rooms and suites. Chef Thomas Vételé commands La Brasserie du Royal restaurant, which specialises in recipes from the region. His accomplished cooking can be enjoyed in four different rooms, such as the alcove or terrace with beautiful views of the garden, or the sunlit veranda. There is also the Lounge Bar, and the SkyLounge, which has 360-degree panoramic views of the city, the lake and the Alps. Relaxation beckons in the Spa, with its indoor swimming pool, Turkish bath, whirlpool, sauna and relaxation area. It also has treatment rooms, a boutique with hair salon, a ladies-only area and a 24/7 fitness facility. What else do you need? LE MIRADOR, LE MONT-PÈLERIN
Situated in an exalted site on the flank of Mont Pèlerin above Lake Geneva within the Lavaux Unesco World Heritage Site, Le Mirador’s views are truly wow-inducing. Rooms and suites, many with spacious private terraces, are decorated with classical panache. Restaurant Le Patio serves contemporary cuisine, while Hinata looks to Japan for inspiration. Post-meal, relax with a cocktail at the Bar Lounge and Terrace to take in the dreamy vistas. Wellbeing is part of the DNA here. The Givenchy Spa has a fitness centre, hammam, sauna and large swimming pool, as well as some divine treatments for face and body. The Mirador Health & Wellness Centre offers restorative and anti-ageing programmes over lengthier stays, as well as aesthetic treatments and restorative dentistry. It is true to say that a more relaxed version of oneself always emerges after time spent at Le Mirador. (
TRANSPORT TIPS
The best way to travel sustainably in Switzerland Switzerland is a public transport paradise. Hydroelectric rail travel forms the backbone of sustainable mobility, and you can glide over lakes by solar-powered boat or float up mountains on a cableway. In partnership with the climate protection organisation ‘myclimate’, Swiss International Air Lines (SWISS) customers can offset their CO₂ emissions by donating to climate protection projects and purchasing alternative fuels. SWISS has frequent, direct flights from London and other major UK & Ireland cities to Zürich and Geneva. Zürich, Basel and Geneva are well connected by train from London.
For more information, please visit mySwitzerland.com/tatler or email sales@stc.co.uk
CONDENASTJOHANSENS.COM ES SAADI MARRAKECH RESORT, MOROCCO
travel HIGHLAND SOCIETY Glenapp Castle, formerly the family seat of the Earl of Inchcape, is now a glamorous hotel in South Ayrshire
Great Scot
Lochside castles and manicured gardens. Highland hikes and picnics on the beach. A sumptuous food scene and world-class whisky. Tartan-draped drawing rooms, log fires and sleek spas. In Scotland, be steeped in history and at one with nature – and feel rested and revived. Here’s the scoop on the must-stay spots… TATLER
By DELILAH KHOMO