Category Archives: Socialites

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

Posted on January 8, 2016 by Tessa Arlen

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 →

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Maud, Lady Cunard and the Wounding Repartee

Posted on September 25, 2015 by Tessa Arlen

‘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 →

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Daisy Brook and the Imprudent Letter

Posted on January 28, 2015 by Tessa Arlen

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 →

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The Goddess of the Hunt and Riding Aside

Posted on September 29, 2014 by Tessa Arlen

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 →

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Drinking Tea and the Rules of Engagement

Posted on September 16, 2014 by Tessa Arlen

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 →

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The Redoubtable Edwardian and the Institution of Marriage

Posted on September 15, 2014 by Tessa Arlen

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 →

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Elinor Glyn and the Tiger Skin

Posted on June 3, 2014 by Tessa Arlen

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 →

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Gladys, Marchioness of Ripon and a Night at the Opera

Posted on April 8, 2014 by Tessa Arlen

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 →

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Lucile, Lady Duff-Gordon and the Dress of Emotion

Posted on February 20, 2014 by mM021114

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 →

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Category Archives: Socialites

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