Category Archives: Socialites

Sir Thomas Beecham and the Importance of Starting, and Finishing, Together

  April 29, 1879 – March 8, 1961 There are two golden rules for an orchestra: start together and finish together. The public doesn’t give a damn what goes on in between. —Sir Thomas Beecham Beecham’s grandfather, also Thomas Beecham, … Continue reading

Posted in Entrepreneurs, Performing Artists, Socialites, Uncategorized | Comments Off on Sir Thomas Beecham and the Importance of Starting, and Finishing, Together

Maud, Lady Cunard and the Wounding Repartee

  ‘Let me introduce you to the man who killed Rasputin,’ Maud Cunard said to guests attending her large dinner party for the Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich. Pavlovich and his friend Prince Felix Yasupov were indeed the men who had … Continue reading

Posted in Socialites, Uncategorized | Comments Off on Maud, Lady Cunard and the Wounding Repartee

Daisy Brook and the Imprudent Letter

  Daisy Brook, who later became Daisy Greville, the Countess of Warwick, was one of the early Edwardian era’s great beauties and the center of it’s many scandals. She featured in DEATH OF A DISHONORABLE GENTLEMAN as an example of imprudence … Continue reading

Posted in Royalty, Socialites | Comments Off on Daisy Brook and the Imprudent Letter

The Goddess of the Hunt and Riding Aside

  Fox-hunting – the great pastime of the English countryman, conjures up vivid images. But women riders –  sitting beautifully upright on their great glossy horses, flowing habits cascading, top hats fixed firmly over neatly coiled and netted hair, veils secured … Continue reading

Posted in Socialites | Comments Off on The Goddess of the Hunt and Riding Aside

Drinking Tea and the Rules of Engagement

The hedonistic age of Edwardian Britain for the idle rich and leisured classes abounded with every possible pastime, as it was out of the question to be of society and to work for a living. For men these interests varied from traditional roles … Continue reading

Posted in Socialites | Comments Off on Drinking Tea and the Rules of Engagement

The Redoubtable Edwardian and the Institution of Marriage

Yes, of course Edwardians married for love, but the upper-classes usually fell in love among their own kind, shoring up their country estates from time to time with alliances to an American fortune or with the daughter of a wealthy … Continue reading

Posted in Royalty, Socialites | Comments Off on The Redoubtable Edwardian and the Institution of Marriage

Elinor Glyn and the Tiger Skin

Elinor Glyn was a best-selling romance novelist whose fame peaked in the early 1900s. She wrote what were heavily criticized as novels of ‘questionable quality and taste’ at a time when Victoria’s rigid rules for fidelity were still strongly upheld by … Continue reading

Posted in Socialites, Writers | Comments Off on Elinor Glyn and the Tiger Skin

Gladys, Marchioness of Ripon and a Night at the Opera

Constance Gladys, Marchioness of Ripon was six feet tall and considered to be a stunner; she was so beautiful that even the most glamorous in her company looked like they needed ‘a touch of the sponge and the duster,’ according … Continue reading

Posted in Entrepreneurs, Performing Artists, Socialites | Comments Off on Gladys, Marchioness of Ripon and a Night at the Opera

Lucile, Lady Duff-Gordon and the Dress of Emotion

Lucile, Lady Duff-Gordon is possibly more infamously known for the scandal surrounding her escape from the Titanic in an almost empty lifeboat with her secretary and her husband Sir Cosmo Duff-Gordon. Continue reading

Posted in Entrepreneurs, Socialites | Comments Off on Lucile, Lady Duff-Gordon and the Dress of Emotion