Christmas At Kew — A botanical world filled with seasonal cheer. Sophie Tea, The Manchester native taking the art world by storm. All This Month This Weekend. Celebrate a Country Living Christmas. She taught me that widowhood is the most desired state for a woman and marriage was the most miserable state a woman could endure. A couple of times she tried to gas him as he lay sleeping.
However, I mixed with a trendy crowd, had plenty of admirers and had no doubt that I would make a splendid marriage, but not necessarily to one of those chinless wonders who spent their time shooting birds and running the country. My ambition was a great house near Sloane Square and a fashionable glamorous life dressed in Chanel and Christian Dior. When I was seventeen and headstrong I had a holiday romance and got pregnant.
It all went wrong and I ended up in a dreary suburb in Melbourne, Australia. I married a man called Graham who had nothing to recommend him except his handsome looks. He installed me in a brick veneer house that as freezing in winter and sweltering in summer. I had no phone, car, washing machine or dryer or television until an elderly couple took pity on me and gave me their old one. They also bought me a heater as Melbourne winters are very cold. They even never bought newspapers, though they listened to the radio.
Simple people leading simple lives but suspicious and hostile to outsiders like myself. The brutal reality of being stuck 12, miles away from home with no money to escape struck such terror into my heart that I thought it would break. I got a dog which I loved with all my heart but it got run over and I grieved bitterly. I grieved and pined for my family and to this day I still have nightmares.
He drank constantly and talked uneducated rubbish and made my life as miserable as possible. His friends regarded me with jealousy and malice as none of them had ever been on a plane. Whenever I spoke of my life in London, they glowered. I tried to make the best of it and make my house bearably pretty but it was funny when I hung net curtains underneath the main drapes and Graham was furiously scornful, saying he had never seen such a thing.
Which were far more practical as that is what his parents had. And so it came to pass that one night Graham was arrested for drink driving and lost his licence. I immediately took driving lessons and took possession of his car. Two days later a handsome and glamorous politician called Sir Billy Snedden visited the club as he was touring the district on a goodwill mission. A posse of photographers followed him and as I shyly stood with the other staff by the wall.
Suddenly I was approached by one of them and asked to pose with Sir Billy on an exercise bicycle and I accepted readily much to the jealousy of my workmates.
During her marriage to Dick, Basia enjoyed an intense, year friendship with charismatic rowing coach Daniel Topolski. Her closeness to the dashing oarsman, who guided Oxford to an unprecedented ten consecutive victories in the Boat Race and later worked as a BBC commentator, continued until his death in at the age of 69, which left Basia heartbroken.
This will go down badly with the Scottish Nationalists: I can disclose that Prince Charles has hired a former Tory official to be his new man North of the Border. Since leaving the Conservatives, Rae has worked for petrol giant BP. Tory MP Nigel Evans is planning a transatlantic jamboree for his 60th birthday next month.
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It was years before I had any idea what she meant. When I was still very young, she met a rich widower called Mr Henryk, who was around 50 and had a face reminiscent of the actor Sid James. I adored him. Then aged around 27, Camilla never did go for younger men. At least, not then. Somehow, she managed to keep two lovers on a string, and we seemed like one big, happy family with me at the centre.
One summer, we all went to Italy for a week together. I knew each man was as desperate as the other to marry Mum. But she miscalculated: each died within six months of the other of a heart attack, leaving her alone for the first time. I was effectively an intruder in what was supposed to be my home. Masquerading as a year-old, I flitted through London high society with a pack of public-school boys who drove E-type Jags or Aston Martins. Many were in line to inherit titles and they all had plenty of money.
There were hunt balls in Wiltshire, house parties in Gloucestershire, clubbing at Tramp nightclub, dinners at the most fashionable restaurants — and I was an integral part of it all. When it was time for me to marry, I decided, my husband would have to be titled — preferably a duke. Blimey, I thought, I might even get to marry the Prince of Wales! My ambition in those days had few bounds.
I travelled alone to a town called Javea, near Benidorm. And one balmy evening, as I was sitting in a bar, I noticed a handsome fellow observing me intently.
He was slim and muscular, with dark hair and fabulous teeth. Later that evening, he asked me to go for a drink with him. A few nights later, I lost my virginity to him in his campervan. And more to the point, no one need know; I could still marry well and get the house in Sloane Square that had always figured in my pipe-dreams. When I got home, however, I was appalled to discover that I was pregnant. I was so tormented with guilt that all I could think about was getting pregnant again.
My old acquaintance Olga, meanwhile, had gossiped about my misfortune to all our friends. My only recourse, I decided, was to leave the country, marry Graham and try for a baby. Of course I was being irrational, but I was only a teenager. These days Basia would rather be at home than mingling with the great and good over canapes and champagne. Pictured: Basia with her husband Dick and the Queen Mother.
When I wrote in desperation to Mum, however, she told me that Stefan was against me returning. Within weeks, I was wretchedly unhappy. The more I had sex, the more I hated it. And then I got pregnant. After my son Adam was born, I wrote to Mum again. Still, I was thrilled with my son and that made up for a great deal. I rocked him and sang to him, glorying in my extraordinary achievement.
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