At a time when this writer was supposed to be culling books and once more attempting to put order into mixed up files, a bundle of interesting books was found in a North Queensland op shop, including the above trilogy by Lady Diana Cooper, the well connected British milkmaid featured in the above dustjacket , often called the most beautiful young woman in England .
The first volume,The Rainbow Comes and Goes details how she, a daughter of the Duke and Duchess of Rutland, was initially brought up in a house which had African assegais in the hall and Cecil Rhodes of South African fame dropping in . Her tall, rather aloof , father was secretary to bearded Lord Salisbury , described as Prime Minister on and off.
Lord Salisbury dropped by one day and found Diana trying to find sixpence she had dropped behind a bookcase in the drawing room , asked what she was doing. Half crying , she told him of her loss , so he gave her sixpence. She was scolded for asking a gentleman for money.
Her artistic mother drew many famous people, including Queen Victoria, Cecil Rhodes, Paderewski,Arthur Balfour , George Meredith and in 1902 exhibited 192 pencil portraits at the Grosvenor Gallery. When her teenage son , Haddon ,died she withdrew to a London studio and sculpted a recumbent figure of him , the plaster cast going into the Tate Gallery, a marble one lodged in the chapel at Haddon Hall .
Diana's mother spent most mornings sitting cross legged in bed ,writing letters . To attract the attention of the maid, she gave " a stylised scream ". Details of her daily ablutions caused a former owner of the book to mark with a large red biro exclamation mark a paragraph which said mother washed in soft, sterilised water, poured out of high stone bottles bought from a chemist ,used very little powder, applied a speck of pink lip-salve.
Many beautiful women attended her 2pm luncheons, including Lady Westmorland , who painted her face.
At an early age , after the sale of the house and financial difficulties , Diana began to fear her parents might separate . Her father, she wrote, had a temper which sometimes ran away with him. He had once thrown a napkin at mother because she had asked Princess Beatrice of Battenberg to luncheon without telling him .
Coming out , attempts to marry her off
Diana, attractive , full of life , even said to be eccentric , well known in High Society , on becoming of marriageable age , was presented at Court in 1911 .
With her mother, she went to Venice the next year as guests of Lady Cunard and there attended parties staged by the fabulously rich Luisa Casati , a muse and patroness of early 20th century arts, who had a menagerie, wore snakes as jewellery ; at one shebang , naked "slaves " threw wood on a fire , one beat a gong to announce the arrival of each guest.
An extraordinary party started in her unfinished palace , the merry throng ,60 in number, all dressed up , wearing masks, proceeded by gondalas to the Piazza San Marco ,where they disported themselves before the crowd , causing uproar , ribald screams and peals of laughter.
Casati , shown above with a greyhound in a painting , dressed like an animal trainer, had a macaw on her shoulder, an ape on an arm , closely followed by a keeper , artificial blood on his arm, leading a leopard or puma .
Diana's mother looked about for a desirable husband: "Like all good mothers, she planned to see me married to an Adonis reigning feudally in a palace, while I was looking for a romantic struggle with some Unknown by my side ".
Diana received her first proposal of marriage when she was 18, from a much older man , who became angry and abusive when rejected , causing her to cry .
Her mother disapproved of some of Diana's friends- possible suitors- that she had , telling her she was wasting time with nobodies.
Diana penned that she regarded the "eligibles" her mother put her way as "leprous to my eyes."
There were foreign eligibles , including several Counts. Very eligible was the Russian Prince Felix Youssupoff, a student at Oxford, deeply in love with Diana's sister, Marjorie . At fancy dress balls he arrived stunningly attired in 18th century finery of gold and pearls , sables and aigrettes , sang Russian gypsy songs . There is a full plate photo of Felix in all his splendid attire . He later killed Rasputin !!!
Diana became a member of a group known as the Coterie , consisting of well connected ,intellectual and literary minded individuals who led exciting lives. One of those was Alfred Duff Cooper ,the son of a fashionable society doctor and a daughter of the Fifth Earl of Fife.
Better known as Duff , perhaps even Up the Duff to a number of women to whom he was exceptionally close , he was wild, a poet, heavy drinker , gambler and womaniser. He sent her many letters during his military service, which saw him awarded the DSO. .
To cut a long, fascinating story and read short , Diana , said to have collected many scalps, after working as a nurse during WWl, during which many members of the Coterie were killed , including poet Rupert Brookes , in 1919 , against family advice , married Duff Cooper ,who became a prominent British politician , diplomat and author .
NEXT :America , Singapore , Australia , New Zealand , drunken Townsville , impressive Darwin , WWll , France , skeletons , with a dash of unwanted porridge .
