In 1943 Henry “Chips” Channon, a well-known British socialite and Conservative politician, spotted Gladys, Duchess of Marlborough, in a Bond Street jewelry shop. He was shocked by her appearance, as was his dog, whichbegan to growl. When Channon reintroduced himself to her, she looked at him, “stared vacantly with those famous turquoise eyes that once drove men insane with desire.” She muttered, in French, “I have never heard that name.” Gladys dropped the ruby clip she was examining and left without another word.
Hugo Vickers was 16 in 1968 when he chanced upon this entry in Channon’s diaries. He was astonished. How had that great beauty, once the toast of Paris, the belle amie of Anatole France and Marcel Proust, turned into what Channon called a “terrifying apparition”? Consumed with curiosity, he was determined to find out.
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