“Our Orient is our imagination.”

— Loulou de la Falaise

Loulou de la Falaise is usually introduced as Yves Saint Laurent’s muse, but that definition would be relatively limited compared to what she eventually became: designer, collaborator, jewelry-maker, hostess, and survivor.

Ultimately, Loulou has been one of the last great bohemians of the fashion world.

Her life had all the right ingredients — beauty, disorder, genius, castles, love affairs, exile, and reinvention — but its real subject was even rarer: the art of making fantasy look real.

Table of Contents: Early Years / Education / New York / Career at YSL / Career After YSL / Personal Life / Reversal of Fortune / Later Years

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Early Years

Louise Vava Lucia Henriette Le Bailly de La Falaise — known to the world, more sensibly, as Loulou de la Falaise — was born on May 4th, 1947, in London, England.

Her father was Count Alain Le Bailly de La Falaise, a French aristocrat, writer, translator, and publisher.

Her mother was Maxime de la Falaise, born Maxime Birley, an Anglo-Irish model who had worked for Elsa Schiaparelli, later wrote about food, and then became a memorable figure in the orbit of Andy Warhol. Maxime’s father was the society portrait painter Sir Oswald Birley, while her brother Mark Birley founded Annabel’s, the famous London nightclub.

According to Loulou, her mother did not baptize her with holy water, but with Schiaparelli’s perfume Shocking. Naturally, the tale may be apocryphal, but it is still telling about the mythology which would later surround her character.

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“G is for Guerra — War”

— La Repubblica Newspaper

Before Maurizio Gucci became part of a famous crime story, he was simply the heir to one of Italy’s most powerful fashion families.

His life was shaped by wealth, glamour, family conflict, and the heavy burden of the Gucci name.

Table of Contents: Early Years / Patrizia / Family Feud / Unexpected Alliance / Send Lawyers, Guns and Money / Warning in Milan / Swiss Exile / The Last Act / Did You Know?

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Early Years

Maurizio Gucci was born in Florence on September 26th, 1948: he was the only child of Rodolfo Gucci, one of the sons of Guccio Gucci, the founder of the Florentine leather-goods house that in the 1950s-60s had become a symbol of Italian elegance worldwide.

His mother, Sandra Ravel (born Alessandra Winkelhauser Ratti) had been an actress, and also his father Rodolfo had worked for a time in cinema before going back to the family business.

Sandra Ravel died when Maurizio was only six years old. Rodolfo Gucci never remarried and raised Maurizio as a very protective father.

In the early 1970s, Maurizio graduated in law at the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan and soon moved to New York to work as a trainee of his uncle Aldo Gucci, whose business acumen had helped turn the small Italian leather goods brand into an international luxury empire.

Patrizia

In 1970, Maurizio met Patrizia Reggiani, a beautiful and bold socialite, at a party in Milan.

Patrizia was born Patrizia Martinelli in 1948 and her social ascent came through her stepfather, Ferdinando Reggiani, who had made (a lot of) money in the trucking business.

Patrizia and Maurizio got married in 1972, against the bitter disapproval of Rodolfo Gucci, who warned Maurizio that she was an unsuitable match and she was nothing more than a social climber.

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“My only regret is things I didn’t do. And I don’t have many of those. Life is just too much fun. Why make it so miserable?”

— Nan Kempner

Nan Kempner was the quintessential New York socialite. With her slim figure, bold fashion sense and unabashed love of the limelight, she dominated the social scene for five decades.

Table of Contents: Early Life / Meeting Tom/ New York High Society / Writing Career & Other Endeavours/ One more thing…

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[This is the updated version of Adorable Story #23, with added quotes and other information]

Early Life

Born Nancy Field Schlesinger in 1930, Nan grew up in San Francisco as the only child of Albert Schlesinger (owner of S&C Motors auto dealership) and his wife Irma Field Schlesinger, a socialite.

Both her parents came from affluent San Franciscan families of jewish descends.

In San Francisco, Nan attended the city’s most prestigious schools — Hamlin School for Girls and Grant — and was known as a bright, if lonely, child who immersed herself in fashion and cookbooks, dreaming of the glamorous life.

Her father made sure to put his money into her life, her mother her wardrobe and advice:

“heels are your best friend”.

Nan considered her mother a model of unattainable style so she experimented with her clothes trying to imitate her. At 12 she was already stealing her clothes and she went on a diet using lettuce leaves instead of bread for her sandwiches.

Her father had told her early on that “you can’t count on your face, you better be interesting.”

And Nan did it, betting everything on her charisma.

After high school, she headed to Connecticut College for Women for a brief stint studying Art History, before transferring to study abroad at the Sorbonne in Paris for her junior year in 1950.

In early 1951, while Nan was studying in Paris, she met George Plimpton (extensively featured in the Adorable Story #157), who at the time was studying History at Cambridge.

“I met George in 1951, when I was at the Sorbonne, and he was at Cambridge. He had just been skiing in Chamonix, and he had broken his leg, and I was the date of someone else. We went punting on the Cam and, of course, by the time we got out of the punt, George and I were in love. He was one of the most dynamic, dramatic, attractive men I’d ever met. We had a little period where he would fly to Paris, and I would fly to London, and we had an awfully good time. We were both too young for it to be anything but innocent. He was a good kisser. He was good at everything.”

— Nan Kempner, 1997

In 1998 she added:

“I loved him dearly, and he remained a great friend until his death a year ago, which I think was one of the sadder things that ever happened.”

At 20, in Paris with her mother, she cried all her tears in the Dior atelier because her substantial pocket money given by her father was not enough to buy the white satin dress with matching coat that had bewitched her.

Her clamors reached a very young Yves Saint Laurent, then assistant to the couturier, who satisfied her by lowering the price until it was finally accessible. It was the beginning of two things: a great friendship with YSL and the endless couture collection of Nan Kempner.

Meeting Tom

In the summer of 1951, during a stopover in New York on the way back from Paris, the 21-year-old Nan had a fateful encounter. She was crossing Madison Avenue at 72nd Street, and a car stopped: it was her high school friend Clarence Heller, who was with a Yale graduate named Tom Kempner.

“Tommy and I traded insults all night,” Nan recalled of their first meeting over drinks at the Monkey Bar, in New York. “Dislike at first sight grew into great, passionate, sexy love.”

Tom Kempner’s maternal grandfather, Carl M. Loeb, was a co-founder of the investment banking house that became Loeb, Rhoades & Co., and his family was part of the German-Jewish aristocracy of Manhattan.

By Thanksgiving 1951 they were engaged, and on the 1st of March of the following year they were married before a rabbi in the ballroom of the St. Francis Hotel and settled into a 16-room Park Avenue duplex apartment, where they later raised three children: Thomas Jr., Lina and James.

After graduating from Yale, Tom Kempner later pursued a successful career in finance, becoming first a partner and then the chairman of Loeb, Rhoades & Co. (which later merged with Shearson/American Express).

New York High Society

After a short stint living in London, the Kempners settled in New York City, where Nan swiftly became a prominent figure in high society.

Nan joined the Junior Council at the Museum of Modern Art and became a fixture at places like El Morocco, La Grenouille (featured extensively in the Adorable Story #1) and the Stork Club.

Her slim figure — partly a product of her mother’s lifelong fixation on dieting and constant exercising — enabled Nan to wear the latest fashion-forward styles from Paris (in fact, she was able to buy at half price the same dresses previously worn by the models on the catwalk).

Judy Peabody, the notable Manhattan socialite, once recalled:

“We were in the same exercise class, at Nicholas Kounovsky’s gym… I felt like a timid little mouse next to Nan, who was this energetic, elegant, fleet-of-foot young woman. I was terrified when Kounovsky put us on a swinging trapeze, but Nan was without fear. She was pregnant, but that didn’t stop her.”

On her documents, not considering herself rich enough to call herself a philanthropist and hating the definition of socialite, she wrote “housewife.”

She organized unforgettable parties and her “Sunday spaghetti” became legendary, to which no one dreamed of saying no: you could happen to meet Betsy Bloomingdale, Pierre Bergé, or even Lady D.

As the three children left the nest as they grew older, Nan and Tom’s bedrooms became part of her wardrobe.

Dior, Ungaro, Mainbocher, Bill Blass and Yves Saint Laurent1 were among her favourites.

At Studio 54 she was a permanent presence and she was also at every YSL catwalk for 55 years straight (except 1993, the year her father died) and on the society pages.

In 1973, Andy Warhol made a portrait of her (see below).

She always went around with her blue passport in her purse, because “you never know”, and her wardrobe wasn’t organized by season since it could happen that she left for London with a stopover in the Caribbean or went to Venice for the usual three weeks at the Cipriani, with a jump to Gstaad then return via Bahamas.

Nan was also among the first to admit the use of plastic surgery that she defined as the “haute couture” of her face.

“Nan always looks so wonderful in my clothes, because she had a body like a hanger”

— Valentino

Writing Career & Other Endeavours

In addition to her whirlwind social activities, Nan also pursued a writing career.

She worked as a fashion editor at Harper’s Bazaar in the late 1960s, a design consultant for Tiffany & Co., the American editor of French Vogue and international representative for Christie's auction house.

Admittedly, her work with the auction house consisted primarily of

“persuading her old-money friends to sell things and her new-money friends to buy them.”

She had an innate sense of style, effortlessly mixing high and low — pairing an YSL jacket with jeans, or couture gowns with funky custom jewelry.

Above all, Nan believed that style was about “expressing your individuality.”

Nan was considered one of the most knowledgeable fashion authorities. Throughout her life, she curated a remarkable private couture collection, showcasing some of the most unforgettable creations of mid-20th century couture.

Laughing, she said that what her husband thought was just an extravagance, turned out to be a collection that museums kept asking her for.

Nan was never afraid to break the rules. In the 1960s, she made headlines for wearing a pantsuit to La Côte Basque, a restaurant that forbid women from wearing pants (really it was another era!).

When stopped at the door, she dramatically removed the pants and entered wearing just the tunic top. Her daring fashion sense matched her bold, outrageous personality.

The art historian John Richardson recalls the late Diana Vreeland telling him:

“There’s no such thing as a chic American woman — the look is always too contrived, it doesn’t come naturally. The one exception is Nan Kempner.”

Well into her 70s, Nan maintained a busy schedule of lunches, galas, nights at the opera, and parties. Even as she began to struggle with emphysema, her vibrant social life never slowed and she just greatly reduced the intercontinental flights and attended all the usual social events with her oxygen tank, which became for her just another accessory.

In 1995 she finally gave up smoking: according to Frances Bowes, Nan gave up cigarettes “when she almost had to have a tracheotomy—they were going to slit her throat open. It scared the hell out of her, so she stopped. And she didn’t have a problem doing it.”

In 1997, she hosted an iconic black-tie dinner at her home honoring Princess Diana, where the late royal’s gowns were auctioned to support AIDS research.

She herself raised money in favor of her cancer research by publishing the 2002 book “R.S.V.P.: Menus for Entertaining From People Who Really Know How.”

Her marriage with Tom survived a separation in 1988 and various other ups and downs2.

Her favorite party (naturally) was her own 50th wedding anniversary. The intimate evening for 476 was held at New York’s Botanical Gardens on May 17, 2002.

Tables were set with votives and ivy, a reported 40,000 lights twinkled overhead, Sammy Goz and his orchestra were flown in from Paris. Her friend Carolyne Roehm wore a gown with sleeves made of gardenias, because the invitation asked guests to wear flowers.

“In my dreams,” Nan Kempner confided, “I go to that party every night.”

Over 30 years, she helped raise more than USD 75m for the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.

As the emphysema progressed, her health deteriorated.

“My dear, wait till you discover the wheelchair. You go to the front of every single line. They push you right through. They push you right on the plane while everybody else helps you. I tell you, it's First Class Plus. Of course, I'm of an age where I'm too old to fly anything but first class, thank you.”

Nan Kempner passed away on July 3rd, 2005 at age 74, due to pulmonary emphysema.

She asked to be buried naked because “there will certainly be some nice boutique in the place where I’m going.”

— Alberto @

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One more thing…

By January 2003, Nan’s emphysema was already worsening but she fought with her doctors to allow her to fly to Gstaad to meet her friends Patricia and William F. Buckley Jr.

Pat Buckley would later recall: “I had a party for her the night she arrived, and I called up the doctor and had her put in the hospital in Saane the next day. Four or five days later the hospital called—I was going down there twice a day— and they said, ‘We’re having a terrible problem, because we cannot get a clot out of her lung. We think she should have a helicopter to take her to the hospital in Bern.’ When I got to the hospital, Nan was choking, and the doctors were shoving this vacuum down into her throat. I said, ‘Nan, I have a helicopter waiting to take you to Bern.’ In between gulps, she said, ‘I’m not going to Bern.’ I said, ‘Nan, why are you not going to Bern?’ She said: ‘I don't know anybody in Bern.’”

“I’ve lost all my money on these films. They are not commercial. But I'm glad to lose it this way. To have for a souvenir of my life pictures like Umberto D. and Bicycle Thieves”.

— Vittorio De Sica

This week we meet Vittorio De Sica, the Italian Oscar winning actor and film director who created “neorealism” and changed history of cinema forever.

Throughout his life, Vittorio De Sica lived as though the camera were always rolling and until the end he made the whole world believe that Italian cinema mattered. Because it did.

Table of Contents: Early Years / Education/ Career/ Invention of Neorealism/ Acting and Directing Career / Personal Life / Gambling on Screen, Gambling in Life / Later Years

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Early Years

Vittorio Domenico Stanislao Gaetano Sorano De Sica was born on July 7th, 1901, in Sora, a small town in Lazio tucked between Rome and Naples.

His father, Umberto, was a journalist who had taken a job as a bank clerk at the Bank of Italy; his mother, Teresa Manfredi, was a Neapolitan housewife.

The family bounced from Sora to Naples — where Umberto was transferred in 1905 —and later to Florence during the First World War, before finally settling in Rome.

De Sica later described their circumstances as “tragic and aristocratic poverty,” a phrase that sounds like the title of one of his own films.

During the war, the teenage Vittorio toured military hospitals with an amateur troupe, singing Neapolitan “canzonette”.

He had a voice that could stop a room, and by his late teens he was already quite a popular singer of Neapolitan songs in local entertainments.

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“You must never be careless.”

— Mona Bismarck

Born in Kentucky and later moving through the grand salons of Paris and New York, she navigated the twentieth century at its highest altitudes of wealth, fashion, and power. Designers dressed her, photographers immortalized her, and society watched her.

In this issue, we explore the ascent and multiple reinventions of a woman who transformed herself into an icon of twentieth century glamour.

Table of Contents: Early Years / Education / Career / Strategy Behind Marriages / Capri / Paris / Salvador Dalí / Personal Life / Bismarck Sapphire Necklace / Philanthropy / Later Years / Did you know?

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Early Years

Mona Bismarck was born Edmona Travis Strader on February 5th, 1897, in Louisville, Kentucky.

She would be later known across Europe as Countess Mona von Bismarck, but she began life in circumstances (very) far from any aristocratic circles.

Her father, Robert Sims Strader, was a horse breeder and trainer, while her mother, Bird O’Shockeny Strader, separated from her husband when Mona was still a child, in 1902.

Mona and her brother were subsequently raised by their paternal grandmother in Kentucky.

The rupture between her parents marked her early life with instability, but not deprivation: her father’s job as a horse breeder and his involvement with racing circles provided her with a relatively comfortable life.

She grew up in Liberty Heights, outside Louisville.

Education

Albeit there is no record of a formal university education, Mona’s schooling appears to have been conventional for a young woman of her social standing in Kentucky at the turn of the century.

If she lacked academic laurels, she possessed something far more valuable in the society she would later dominate: instinct.

Career

Mona Bismarck did not build a conventional career. She built an image, secured marriages and eventually turned that into capital.

Her first marriage, to Henry J. Schlesinger in 1917, provided financial security.

Schlesinger was 18 years her senior and owned Fairland Farm in Lexington, where her father had worked. The marriage produced one child, Robert Henry Schlesinger, before ending in divorce just three years later, in 1920.

According to contemporary accounts, Mona relinquished custody of her son in exchange for a financial settlement of USD 500,000 (a vast sum at the time: approximately in the region of USD 10m in today’s value).

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“Clay is a dancer, viveur, playboy and a driver in his spare time.”

— Enzo Ferrari

Exuberant yet disciplined, flamboyant yet astute, Gianclaudio “Clay” Regazzoni was a legendary Formula 1 driver for many race teams, including Ferrari and Williams.

In an era of Formula 1 when danger was woven into every lap, he chose not to retreat from it. He lived fast, survived the unsurvivable, and insisted that the race, in one form or another, would always continue.

Table of Contents: Early Years / Education / Racing Career / Formula One / Long Beach Accident / Post F1 Career / Books / Personal Life / Later Years

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Early Years

Gianclaudio Giuseppe “Clay” Regazzoni was born on September 5th, 1939, in Mendrisio, in Switzerland’s Italian-speaking canton of Ticino.

He grew up in nearby Porza, above Lugano: his father, Pio Regazzoni, was a skilled carrozziere — a master of automobile bodywork — and served for nearly three decades as mayor of Porza.

Clay had two brothers, Mario Angelo and Giordano, known as “Dodo,” who also briefly tried racing.

His father’s workshop was his first playground: amid welding sparks and dented fenders, Clay developed an instinctive understanding of how metal bends and how speed feels.

Years later, mechanics would marvel at his sensitivity to race cars chassis balance: that intuition was born on the concrete floor of his father “carrozzeria”.

The nickname “Clay” followed him from adolescence into legend.

Education

Clay attended school in Lugano but soon joined the family body shop.

Switzerland’s ban on circuit racing, imposed after the June 11th, 1955 catastrophe at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, shaped the geography of his ambition.

That late spring afternoon, Mercedes driver Pierre Levegh collided with an Austin-Healey. His car disintegrated at high speed, with its engine block and suspension components projected into the audience: Levegh was killed instantly, 83 spectators lost their lives and well over a hundred more were seriously injured.

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Eva Dickson: I shall drive from here in Nairobi to Stockholm.

Swedish Gentleman: The wager is accepted.

Before the age of thirty‑five, Eva Dickson had flown airplanes, raced automobiles under a man’s name, wagered on her own endurance, and driven across some of the world’s most unforgiving terrains.

Born into Swedish aristocracy but restless to live within the rules of the time, she traded the comforts of her home for the road. In an era that prescribed stillness for women of her class, she chose velocity.

This is the story of a life lived forward, toward risk, and the next horizon.

Table of Contents: Early Years / Education / Career / Personal Life / The Silk Road Dream

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Early Years

Eva Amalia Maria Lindström was born on March 8th, 1905 at Steninge Slott in Sigtuna, Sweden (1 hour north of Stockholm).

Her father, Albert Lindström, was a respected hippologist who later became director-in-chief of Sweden’s national stud authority.

Her mother, Maria “Mille” Lindström, took care of the family which remained confidently within Stockholm’s upper tier.

Eva had an older brother: Åke.

When she was two, the family left Steninge for Ljungs Slott, a beautiful Swedish castle outside Linköping (just 2 hours by car from Stockholm). She spent her formative childhood years surrounded by horses, estate routines, and the quiet discipline of country life.

In 1916 they finally relocated to Stockholm after her father accepted his national appointment.

Stockholm society noticed her early: from a young age, Eva was an excellent horseback rider.

Education

Eva and her brother were initially educated at home by a governess. Later she attended the Brummer School (Brummerska skolan) and then the Anna Sandström school in Stockholm.

Her true education, however, unfolded in mechanical form.

On July 1st, 1923, she received her pilot’s licence, becoming one of Sweden’s earliest licensed female aviators (according to Swedish records, she was most probably the third woman getting a pilot license in Sweden).

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“There is no such person as Peter Sellers”

—Stanley Kubrick

He was a man of a thousand voices, and perhaps none of his own.

This week, we trace the restless life of Peter Sellers: his meteoric rise from radio chaos to global stardom, the fragile heart behind the laughter, the glamour, the volatility, the brilliance.

From Inspector Clouseau’s immaculate incompetence to the quiet mystery of Being There, we explore the range and life of a comic genius who conquered the world and never quite found solid ground.

If you think you know him, read on: there is more beneath the mustache.

Table of Contents: Early Years / Education / WWII / Career / Inspector Clouseau / Other Notable Performances / Personal Life / Residences / Health Issues / Later Years

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Early Years

Peter Sellers was born Richard Henry Sellers on September 8th, 1925, in Southsea, Hampshire, England.

The name “Peter” was not the one on his birth certificate. It was the name his parents had already chosen for a son who was born before him and died at birth. When Richard was born in 1925, they gave him a different legal name — but soon began calling him Peter, reusing the name of the child they had lost.

His parents, Bill Sellers and Agnes Doreen “Peg” Marks, were vaudeville performers.

His mum Peg was Jewish, the daughter of Solomon Marks and Welcome Mendoza, and a distant relative of the 18th‑century bare‑knuckle boxing champion Daniel Mendoza.

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Lady Pamela Carmen Louise Hicks was a British aristocrat and relative of the British royal family. She was the younger daughter of Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma and Edwina Mountbatten.

Through her father, Lady Pamela was a first cousin of the late Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, and a grandniece of the last Empress of Russia, Alexandra Feodorovna. She served as a bridesmaid and later as a lady-in-waiting to Queen Elizabeth II.

Table of Contents: Mountbatten Family / Early Childhood / Lord Mountbatten Assassination / Personal Life / Key Publications

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[This is the updated version of Adorable Story #79, revised in light of recent events and enriched with new photographic material]

Pamela Carmen Louise Hicks was born on April 19th, 1929, in Barcelona, Spain. She was the youngest of the two daughters of Lord Louis Mountbatten and Edwina Ashley.

Mountbatten Family

Pamela’s lineage is impressive, with connections to the British royal family.

Her father, Lord Mountbatten, was the last Viceroy of India, the first Governor-General of independent India, and a notable British naval officer and statesman.

Through her father, she was a great-great granddaughter of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, and, after the death of Queen Elizabeth II, their oldest surviving descendant. Through her father, she is also a first cousin of the late Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.

Her father Lord Mountbatten was born “Battenberg” and adopted his anglicized surname due to the events of World War I.

Between 1914 and 1918, in fact, Britain and its allies were at war with the Central Powers, led by Germany. To address British nationalist feelings, King George V issued a royal proclamation in 1917, changing the name of the British royal house from the German House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha to the House of Windsor.

British relatives of the king with German names followed suit, with Mountbatten’s father adopting the surname “Mountbatten,” an anglicized version of Battenberg. He was then given the title Marquess of Milford Haven.

Early Childhood

Pamela spent much of her early childhood in Malta, where her father was stationed with the Royal Navy.

During World War II, she was evacuated to New York City with her sister for safety reasons: in New York City she attended Hewitt School.

After World War II ended, she returned to England where she lived at her family’s Palladian country estate, Broadlands, in Hampshire.

In 1947, Pamela accompanied her parents to India during her father’s term as Viceroy of India, living at Government House in New Delhi and Viceregal Lodge in Simla.

In 1947, she was chosen to be a bridesmaid for the then-Princess Elizabeth, on her wedding to Pamela’s cousin, Prince Philip.

As a lady-in-waiting, she accompanied the Queen on her tour of Kenya, and was with her when news of her father King George VI’s death reached her in 1952.

Later on, she would travel the world with the Queen, going on tour with her to Jamaica, Panama, Fiji, Tonga, New Zealand, Australia, Ceylon, Aden, Libya, Malta and Gibraltar.

Her mother Edwina, countess of Mountbatten, died in 1960: she was 58 years old and her death was unexpected as she died in her sleep (probably due to heart attack) and occurred while she was engaged in humanitarian work in Borneo (which had become a significant part of her life in her later years). Edwina was buried at sea off the coast of Portsmouth, England.

Lord Mountbatten Assassination

Lord Mountbatten typically spent his vacations at Classiebawn Castle, his summer residence located on the Mullaghmore Peninsula in County Sligo, northwestern Ireland.

This area was in close proximity to Northern Ireland, being only less than 20 km from the border and, at the time, the region was known to serve as a cross-border sanctuary for IRA members.

In 1978, it was reported that the IRA had planned to assassinate Lord Mountbatten with a long range sniper while he was on his boat, but unfavorable weather conditions had allegedly thwarted the sniper’s attempt.

On August 27th, 1979, Lord Mountbatten took his 9 meters wooden boat out for lobster-potting and tuna fishing from Mullaghmore harbor.

The night before, the IRA had secretly planted a 23 kg radio-controlled bomb on the unguarded vessel. The explosive was detonated via radio when Mountbatten’s group had traveled just a short distance from the shore, causing massive destruction to the boat and severely injuring Mountbatten’s legs.

The 79-year-old Lord Mountbatten died before reaching land.

Personal Life

In 1960, Pamela married David Nightingale Hicks, a celebrated interior designer.

Together, they had three children:

1. Edwina Victoria Louise Hicks: Born on December 24th, 1961, she pursued a career in public relations.

2. Ashley Louis David Hicks: Born on July 18th, 1963, he followed in his father's footsteps, becoming an interior designer and author.

3. India Amanda Caroline Hicks: Born on September 5th, 1967, she is a designer, author, and former fashion model.

The Hicks family lived their early years at the Brittle House in Britwell Salome (photo below), Oxfordshire, which became a place to experiment for designer David Hicks.

Built around 1728, David and Pamela Hicks bought the Georgian property (with 20th century additions) shortly after their wedding in 1960.

The house and its contents were sold in 1979 when David Hicks’ business declined and taxes and maintenance expenses of the Georgian estate became too costly for the family finances.

After selling the Britwell House, the Hicks family moved to The Grove, a smaller house on the same estate, in the valley below Britwell.

The Hicks family also lived in a set of rooms at the Albany (photo above), the early-19th-century apartment building in Piccadilly, London, which has housed many famous names over the years including Lord Byron, Aldous Huxley, Harold Nicolson, J.B. Priestley and William Henry Fox Talbot.

David Hicks spent his later years of his life working on the house and garden at The Grove.

David Hicks died of lung cancer in 1998: he designed his own coffin, in which he “lay in state”, according to his precise instructions, in the ground-floor room of the Gothic pavilion, also of his own design.

After her husband’s passing, Pamela Hicks continued to live at The Grove.

The Hicks family also have a house called Savannah on the tiny adjoining island of Windermere (next to Eleuthera), in the Bahamas (see photo at the beginning of this Adorable Story).

Philanthropy and Public Life

Pamela was deeply involved in various charitable endeavors, often supporting causes related to the welfare of children and education. Her philanthropic spirit mirrored that of her mother, Edwina, who was known for her humanitarian work during and after World War II.

Key Publications

Pamela Hicks authored two memoirs that provide a glimpse into her extraordinary life:

1. “India Remembered: A Personal Account of the Mountbattens During the Transfer of Power”: A personal account of her family’s time in India during the last days of the British Empire.

2. “Daughter of Empire: Life as a Mountbatten”: A detailed memoir recounting her childhood and her time as lady-in-waiting to the Queen.

Later Years

Lady Pamela Hicks died peacefully on June 5th, 2026, aged 97. She had spent her later years at The Grove in Brightwell Baldwin, where she remained closely surrounded by family.

—Alberto @

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“I thought it would be interesting to be beaten by the best.”

— George Plimpton

It is hard to believe it took us this long to devote an issue to George Plimpton.

With his rainbow of adventures, repeated brushes with history, and his gift for urbane self‑mockery, he might be the unofficial patron saint of The Adorable Times.

Table of Contents: Early Years / Education / The Paris Review / Interviewing Hemingway / Participatory Journalism / Movie Cameos / Meeting History / Personal Life / Rumble in the Jungle / The Pirate Adventure at Hammersmith Farm / Fireworks / Later Years / Did you know?

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[This is Part 2 of the Adorable Story #157. Part 1 can be found here.]

Meeting History

“George was the bravest man I ever knew.”

— Norman Mailer

George’s life repeatedly intersected with history in unexpected ways.

On June 5th, 1968, at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, George was present when his Harvard classmate Robert F. Kennedy was shot by Sirhan B. Sirhan. George helped restrain Sirhan Sirhan immediately after the shooting.

The next day, Kennedy died of the injuries.

Personal Life

On March 28th, 1968, George Plimpton married Freddy Medora Espy. She was a photographer’s assistant and the daughter of writer Willard R. Espy. Their sudden wedding famously caught the bride off guard, as George neglected to officially ask her until the morning of the ceremony.

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“You should take your work seriously, but never yourself.”

— George Plimpton

It is hard to believe it took us this long to devote an issue to George Plimpton.

With his rainbow of adventures, repeated brushes with history, and his gift for turning experience into art, he might well be the unofficial patron saint of The Adorable Times.

Table of Contents: Early Years / Education / The Paris Review / Interviewing Hemingway / Participatory Journalism / Movie Cameos / Meeting History / Personal Life / Rumble in the Jungle / The Pirate Adventure at Hammersmith Farm / Fireworks / Later Years / Did you know?

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[This is Part 1 of the Adorable Story #157. Part 2 will be published next weekend]

Early Years

George Ames Plimpton was born on March 18th, 1927, in New York City, into a family that traced its lineage to the Mayflower.

His father, Francis Taylor Pearsons Plimpton, was a corporate lawyer and senior partner at the white‑shoe firm Debevoise & Plimpton, and later served as U.S. Deputy Representative to the United Nations from 1961 to 1965.

His mother, Pauline Ames Plimpton, came from equally storied lineage, the legendary Ames family of Massachusetts, whose branches included governors, Civil War figures, and industrialists.

George grew up on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, in a duplex at 1165 Fifth Avenue, and spent summers in West Hills on Long Island.

George had three siblings: Francis T. P. Plimpton, Oakes Ames Plimpton, and Sarah Gay Plimpton.

Education

Young George attended St. Bernard’s School and then Phillips Exeter Academy, from which he was expelled just shy of graduation for disciplinary reasons.

He ultimately received his diploma from Daytona Beach High School before entering Harvard College in July of 1944.

His Harvard years were interrupted by military service between 1945 and 1946; after the end of the WWII in 1945, he was stationed in Northern Italy as an Army tank driver.

“My specialty was 700-pound Japanese beach mines. After the war they relieved me of that duty and made me a tank driver. In northern Italy, by mistake, I drove my tank through a house. They promoted me from tank driver to tank commander.”

— George Plimpton

In 1946, George returned to Harvard to complete his degree in English, graduating in 1950.

At Harvard, George was on the same class of Robert Kennedy, wrote for the Harvard Lampoon, joined the Porcellian Club, and cultivated the theatrical self-awareness that would later become his signature.

From 1950 to 1952, he studied at King’s College, in Cambridge (UK), graduating with third-class honors in English.

At the time, George Plimpton was also romantically involved with Nan Kempner (then Nan Field Schlesinger, previously featured in the Adorable Story #23).

The Paris Review

In 1952, George Plimpton was in Paris with Peter Matthiessen (at the time a CIA agent gathering intelligence in Europe) and Harold L. “Doc” Humes, three young American writers who felt that contemporary fiction was being neglected by academic criticism.

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“Never, never look back”

— Bunny Mellon

In this second chapter, we step beyond the public commissions during the Kennedy years and into Bunny Mellon’s private rooms. Behind the discipline of the Rose Garden stood a woman whose personal life was marked by utmost discretion.

Table of Contents: Early Years / Education / White House Rose Garden / Beyond the Rose Garden / Personal Life / Residences / Art Collection / Later Years / Did you know?

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[This is Part 2 of the Adorable Story #156. Part 1 can be found here]

Personal Life

On November 25th, 1932, Bunny married Stacy Barcroft Lloyd Jr. The marriage ended in divorce in 1948. They had two children: Stacy “Tuffy” Barcroft Lloyd III and Eliza Winn Lloyd.

On May 1st, 1948, Bunny married Paul Mellon, heir to one of America’s great banking fortunes.

Their marriage lasted more than fifty years and positioned Bunny at the center of formidable philanthropic influence (and, obviously, public eye): together, the Mellons gave vast sums to art, education, medical research, and preservation.

Paul was instrumental in founding major institutions such as the Yale Center for British Art. Bunny’s influence was quieter but no less impacting: she supported horticultural research, libraries, schools, and conservation efforts, oftentimes anonymously.

Bunny’s daughter Eliza married Henry “Derry” Dermot Posenby, Viscount Moore (later the 12th Earl of Drogheda), on May 15th, 1968 in Upperville, VA.

Caroline Kennedy was a flower girl at the couple’s wedding, and John F. Kennedy, Jr. was a page. The couple divorced barely 4 years later, in 1972: they had no children and they both would not remarry.

In 2000, Eliza was hit by a truck while crossing a Manhattan street and suffered a severe brain injury. As a result, she became quadriplegic and unable to speak.

Eliza spent the remaining eight years of her life under round-the-clock care at Oak Spring Farms, her mother’s home in Upperville, Virginia.

Residences

Throughout her life, Bunny Mellon owned a constellation of residences that mirrored the geography of twentieth‑century privilege.

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“When things are looking a little too neat, she takes a little snip out of a chair or something so it will have that lived-in look.”

— Truman Capote

Bunny Mellon redesigned the White House Rose Garden without calling herself a designer. She assembled one of the greatest private art collections in America without ever appearing driven by ownership. She moved among presidents, couturiers, and kings yet guarded her privacy with almost ferocious discipline.

She lived for 103 years: long enough to shape the visual language of American power and retreat from it on her own terms. Who was the woman behind the understatement, and how did someone so quiet leave such a lasting mark?

Table of Contents: Early Years / Education / White House Rose Garden / Beyond the Rose Garden / Personal Life / Residences / Art Collection / Later Years / Did you know?

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Early Years

Rachel Lowe Lambert — known to the world, and to history, as Bunny Mellon — was born on August 9th, 1910, in New York City.

She was reportedly nicknamed “Bunny” as a little girl by a cousin who thought she resembled a rabbit because of her then prominent front teeth.

The name stuck: by the time she was an adult moving through New York and European society, “Rachel” had basically disappeared.

Decades later, even if formal invitations read “Mrs. Paul Mellon,” socially she was always Bunny.

Bunny lived a life of almost implausible polish and restraint.

She was the eldest child of Gerard Barnes Lambert, president of the Gillette Safety Razor Company (and later head of Warner–Lambert), and Rachel Parkhill Lowe.

Her paternal grandfather, Jordan Lambert, invented Listerine; her father turned it into a commercial powerhouse.

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Michael Butler is best known as the producer of the revolutionary musical “Hair,” a defining work of the 1960s counterculture. Despite no prior experience, he was captivated by its revolutionary message and brought it to Broadway, where it became a cultural phenomenon. Michael’s contributions extended beyond theater, as he also contributed to founding many important discotheques in North America and the Talisman Resort on Fire Island.

Table of Contents: Early Life and Family Background / Education / From Chicago to NYC / Hair’s Impact on the 60s Counterculture / Personal Life / Later years

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Early Life and Family Background

Born on November 26th, 1926, Michael Butler came from a wealthy family in Chicago. His father, Paul Butler, was a prominent businessman, and the family had interests in various industries, including paper manufacturing, aviation and horse racing.

The Butler family also owned 5,800 acres outside Chicago, land that is now the village of Oak Brook, Illinois, and they would host polo tournaments, skeet shoots and fox hunts there.

His Anglo-Irish family first arrived in America in 1654. In the early 1800s, his ancestors Asa and Simon Butler were the first American paper makers to make paper for the U.S. Congress. In the 1830s, Oliver Morris Butler built a paper mill on the Fox River in Illinois. In 1841, his brother Julius Wales Butler founded the J.W. Butler Paper Company on State Street in Chicago, IL., the oldest family owned business in Chicago. They also were the largest landowners in Du Page County.

Michael’s father, Paul Butler had business interests in aviation, real estate, and the paper industry. The family also owned a significant horse racing stable, which became one of their notable enterprises. Their diverse investments provided a strong financial foundation, allowing Michael to pursue his passion for theater and the arts.

Education

Michael attended various schools growing up, including the Culver Military Academy in Indiana, and studied English and history for a time at the University of Colorado before dropping out to spend nine months travelling across Africa, where, he said, he “drove a station wagon from Cape Town to Khartoum.”

Michael also tried the University of Virginia, where he hoped to pursue architecture, but, as he told The Honolulu Advertiser in 1974, “I got interested in fox hunting, and that was it.”

He then went to work for his father helping to run the various family businesses, and he showed some talent.

In 1962, President John F. Kennedy made him a special adviser on the Middle East, where Mr. Butler had been overseeing the family business interests.

In the early 1960s, Michael founded Talisman, a resort community on Fire Island, together with the record executive Ahmet Ertegun (whom we already mentioned in the Adorable Story #75 about Chessy Rainer, friend and business partner of Ahmet’s wife, interior designer Mica Ertegun): for some time in the 60s, Talisman was the place to be for the chic and well heeled.

Michael Butler was also partner in various discothèques (including Inferno, Ondine, Hippopotamus (which we mentioned in the Adorable Story #80 about Olivier Coquelin), and LeBison), among other interests.

He also managed the polo club the family founded at Oak Brook, even getting Prince (now King) Charles to play there in 1986 with a British team.

“Inheritance is a dangerous thing,” Mr. Butler told The Boston Globe in 1979, explaining his ever-expanding lists of interests and investments: “The temptation is to goof off and not struggle.”

From Chicago to NYC

Michael Butler’s journey from Chicago to New York was driven by his passion for the arts and a desire to make an impact. Despite having no prior experience with musicals, Michael was captivated by the cultural shifts of the 1960s.

His background in business and his family’s financial support provided him with the resources and confidence to take on this ambitious project, ultimately leading to the show’s monumental success.

Michael had seen the original Off Broadway version of “Hair,” produced by Joseph Papp at the Public Theater in 1967, and decided he was the person to take it to Broadway, but not without some changes.

He thought the downtown version of the show was too “beatnik.”

“Beatnik is put-down, negative, drag,” he explained to The Los Angeles Times in 1969. “Hippie is put-on, positive, beautiful.”

The reworked version added the now-famous nude scene involving assorted cast members at the end of the first act, startling for Broadway at the time.

Hair’s Impact on the 60s Counterculture

“I think this is the first public platform for the hippie movement,” he told Newsday in 1968. “It really describes the hippie movement in the hippie way and communicates it to non-hippies.”

When Michael Butler took “Hair” to Broadway, he worked closely with the creative team to refine the production. He helped reshape the musical to better resonate with mainstream audiences while maintaining its original spirit.

This included enhancing the choreography and updating the set design to create a more dynamic and engaging experience. Butler’s vision and input were instrumental in transforming “Hair” into the iconic Broadway hit it became: the show was a massive success, running for 1,750 performances and earning a Tony Award nomination.

He also established a dozen road companies that performed the show throughout North America and overseas. A few times, with one company or another, he even joined the cast members during the now famous nude scene.

“I certainly wouldn’t like to run around nude all the time,” he told The Palm Beach Post in 1972, “but it’s nice to have the freedom to do it if you want to.”

“Butler, who is driven about in an antique Rolls-Royce, feels he’s a hippie,” the Long Island newspaper Newsday wrote in 1968, two months after “Hair” opened on Broadway. “He even looks like a hippie, in leather jacket, bushy mustache and long hair. But the jacket cost a bundle from an exclusive men’s shop in town.”

Personal Life

Michael Butler was married three times before he was 40, to Marti Stevens, Robin Boyer and Loyce Stinson Hand: all three marriages ended in divorce.

He was linked romantically to a number of partners over the years, including actress Audrey Hepburn in the 1950s.

Throughout his life, Michael Butler has lived in Oak Brook, New York City, Belerbei (Turkey), Montecito, Los Angeles, Warfield, and Berks (UK).

Later years

Michael accumulated a few more Broadway producing credits, most notably on “Lenny,” a 1971 play based on the life of Lenny Bruce that ran for more than a year, and the musical “Reggae” in 1980.

He also produced a number of productions of “Hair” in addition to the original road company ones, including a 1977 Broadway revival.

In the early 1990s, Michael Butler declared bankruptcy, blaming soured investments and family infighting over the Butler fortune.

In a 1993 interview with The New York Times, he reflected on materialism, his reduced circumstances and the lessons of “Hair.”

“You can’t forget the dreams and the hopes and the thoughts of peace and love that went on in the 1960s,” he said. “They were beautiful things. Something will happen to bring the Age of Aquarius about. I believe that.

“It may be a collective feeling,” he added. “It may be a messiah, although, whenever I say that, I always add that I’m not a candidate for the job.”

Michael Butler died on November 7th, 2022 in Reseda, California. He was 95 years old.

“Hair” continues to be performed frequently around the world, and he was said to be working on a new production at the time of his death.

—Alberto @

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“The girl can write rings around all of us”

— Ernest Hemingway

Beryl Markham did not wait for permission.

Raised on the wide plains of colonial Kenya, she was fluent in the language of horses and ancient African tribes before she became a bush pilot navigating unmapped African skies, and the first person to fly solo across the Atlantic from east to west.

Her story moves through love, loss and danger, and a late literary resurrection that almost slipped away.

Table of Contents: Early Years / Childhood Accident / Education / Career: on Horseback / Personal Life / Denys / Career: on Airplane / The Messenger / Literary Career: West with the Night / Later Years

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Early Years

Beryl Markham was born Beryl Clutterbuck on October 26th, 1902, in Ashwell, Leicestershire, England.

Her parents were Charles Baldwin Clutterbuck, a British army officer and horse breeder, and Clara Agnes Clutterbuck (née Alexander).

Beryl had an older brother, Richard (Dickie).

When Beryl was about four years old, her father moved the family to British East Africa (now Kenya), where they settled near Njoro in the Rift Valley and built a farm called Green Hills.

There, her father bred and trained race-horses.

Unfortunately her mother did not like the African bush much and as soon as young Richard was old enough to require formal schooling, Clara took the chance and returned to England with him.

Beryl remained in Africa with her father though: she was old enough to barely understand what was happening and that decision shaped the rest of her life.

With her mother back to England and her father busy running the business, Beryl grew up alone in a world of open plains, horses, and local African communities.

Without anyone hovering over her, she played with local Kipsigis and Nandi children, learned to track and hunt wild animals, and to throw a spear. She became fluent in Swahili and rode horses almost from the moment she could walk.

Childhood Accident

There is one story that defines her early years more than any other.

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“You feel like this man is breaking through walls, tearing down mountains, and turning the world upside down to conquer you. He is wild, impatient, with a stormy temper. But he lays his heart at your feet when he desires you, and he desires you unceasingly. He is the best gift a woman can give herself.”

— Zsa Zsa Gabor

Romance, horsepower, and high society were not separate pursuits for Porfirio Rubirosa, but intertwined expressions of the same appetite for risk, elegance, and velocity.

To understand Rubirosa is to follow the arc of a life driven by sheer joie de vivre.

Table of Contents: Early Years / Education / Career / How Did He Make Money? / Style / Personal Life / Notable Affairs and Relationships / Polo / Fast Cars / Trujillo Downfall / Coupe de France in Deauville / Bois de Boulogne / Did you know?

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[This is Part 2 of the Adorable Story #154. Part 1 can be found here]

Notable Affairs and Relationships

Rubirosa’s romantic life extended well beyond his numerous marriages.

Throughout the 1940s and 1950s, he was linked to some of the most celebrated, beautiful women of his era, including Zsa Zsa Gabor, Eva Peron, Queen Soraya (the second wife of the Shah of Persia), Ava Gardner, Kim Novak and Rita Hayworth.

These relationships unfolded within the small world of Hollywood, Paris, New York, and the French Riviera, where film stars, aristocrats, and industrial fortunes mingled freely.

Women consistently described him as generous with both attention and spectacle: it should be clear by now to our readers that money, when it came to him, tended to circulate rather than accumulate.

Among the small circle of the post-WW2 international playboys, Porfirio Rubirosa openly boasted that he was the only one among them who did not pay for women: quite the opposite, some of the wealthiest and most beautiful women on the planet actually paid to be with him.

Whether brief, intermittent or prolonged, such affairs with highly visible and already wealthy women reinforced his public image as a man who belonged at the center of the international jet set.

When asked by his friend Sammy Davis Jr. if he ever had a real job, he said:

”Women are my full-time job.”

By the 1950s, Rubirosa had become shorthand in Paris for male sexual prowess, so much so that oversized pepper mills in many Paris restaurants were nicknamed “Rubirosas” in his honour.

Truman Capote, the American writer who moved in Rubirosa’s same rarefied circles in New York City, once reportedly described him in memorable anatomical terms, likening him to a “foot‑long café au lait spoon.”

Polo

Polo was not a hobby for Porfirio Rubirosa.

It was a serious pursuit and one of the few arenas where he sought recognition out of his own pure sporting ability, independent of politics or romantic endeavours.

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“He was the only man who made me laugh in bed.”

— Zsa Zsa Gabor

Admired, envied, and endlessly mythologized, Porfirio Rubirosa came to embody the postwar international playboy: a man whose charm unlocked doors in diplomacy, sport, and high society alike. Yet his story reaches beyond glamour, revealing a life shaped by ambition and reinvention at the rarefied heights of power and pleasure.

Table of Contents: Early Years / Education / Career / How Did He Make Money? / Style / Personal Life / Notable Affairs and Relationships / Polo / Fast Cars / Trujillo Downfall / Coupe de France in Deauville / Bois de Boulogne

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This is Part 1 of the Adorable Story #154. Part 2 will be published next weekend.

Early Years

Porfirio Rubirosa was born on January 22nd, 1909, in San Francisco de Macorís, Dominican Republic.

He was the third and youngest son in a well‑placed Dominican family: his father, Pedro María Rubirosa Rossi, was a general and, later, the Dominican Republic ambassador to France. On his mother’s side, he descended from Juan Esteban Ariza, who briefly presided over the Dominican governing junta in 1876.

His father’s diplomatic career brought the family to Europe when Porfirio was still a child.

Paris made a deep mark on him: it would later become his favorite city.

Education

Rubirosa was educated in Europe during his father’s diplomatic postings. He spent his childhood in France where he learned multiple languages, acquired manners that opened doors in salons, and absorbed the codes of upper‑class society.

At school, he did not build a reputation as a particularly dedicated student.

His strengths were social: he could talk as easily to generals, actresses, business men, and heads of state without changing tone.

That gift would later become his currency.

Career

“I have never worked a day in my life.”

— Porfirio Rubirosa

Porfirio Rubirosa’s rise began with power.

In 1930, Porfirio Rubirosa left Europe and returned to Santo Domingo where he held a commission in the army, as a simple lieutenant.

In 1931, he met Dominican dictator Rafael Leónidas Trujillo at a country club in Santo Domingo: the next morning, Trujillo made him a lieutenant in the Presidential Guard.

That meeting changed everything.

Later in 1931 he met Flor de Oro Trujillo, the dictator’s eldest daughter, and on December 2nd, 1932, he married her.

This marriage elevated him from army lieutenant to a trusted Trujllo family insider. Shortly thereafter, he began receiving diplomatic postings in Europe.

By 1936, Porfirio Rubirosa officially entered the Dominican diplomatic service: his first posting was in Berlin, where he watched the Olympics from Adolf Hitler’s private box.

The marriage with Flor the Oro ended in 1937, but his proximity to power did not. Trujillo continued to protect him and promoted his career even after the marriage to his daughter had dissolved.

Over the years Porfirio held diplomatic posts in Berlin, Paris, Vichy, Buenos Aires, Rome, Havana, and Brussels. For almost three decades, Paris became his headquarters and his playground.

But diplomacy alone did not fund Ferraris, polo ponies, and a permanent suite at the Hôtel de Paris in Monte Carlo. As many suspected at the time, there was something more.

How Did He Make Money?

“I’m too busy to work.”

— Porfirio Rubirosa

One early episode helps explain the mystery.

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“You have to eat life or life will eat you.”

— Joan Collins

Joan Collins bridged eras.

She started out in the British film studios of the early 1950s, learning the ropes the old-fashioned way. In her twenties, she packed her bags for Hollywood and made a name for herself on the big screen. Just when many actresses her age were being pushed aside, she staged an unlikely comeback in her late forties with Dynasty, a tv-show that turned her into an international icon. In the years that followed, she didn’t hide from personal hardships. She wrote about them, spoke about them, and reshaped them into stories of survival and resilience.

Table of Contents: Early Years / Education / Career / Alexis: Capitalism with Lipstick / Bestselling Author / Philanthropy / Personal Life / Later Years / Did you know?

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Early Years

Joan Henrietta Collins was born on May 23rd, 1933, in Paddington, London. She grew up in Maida Vale, a beautiful neighbourhood in North-West London.

Her father, Joseph William Collins, was a theatrical agent and his clients later included Shirley Bassey, The Beatles and Tom Jones. Her mother, Elsa Collins (née Bessant), was a dance teacher. Joan’s father was South African and Jewish, while her mother was British and Anglican.

She had two younger siblings. Her sister, Jackie Collins, became a bestselling novelist. Her brother, Bill Collins, worked in property. Show-business was part of daily life in the family.

Joan went on stage at the age of nine in a production of A Doll’s House.

She grew up during the Second World War. London was bombed and the Collins, like everybody else, endured rationing and air raids.

Those early years left her with grit and a taste for glamour: she has said more than once that she wanted beauty and sparkle in her adult life because she had seen enough gray skies as a child.

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“The Baron was not a man that you forget.”

— Ernest Hemingway

Born to an aristocratic Swedish family, Baron Bror von Blixen-Finecke married his Danish second-cousin Karen Blixen (better known by her pen name Isak Dinesen) in 1914. The couple moved to Kenya, where they bought a coffee plantation. After divorcing his first wife, he became a legendary guide in safari expeditions throughout Africa.

Table of Contents: Early Life / Karen’s Interest in Hans and Bror / Marriage and Move to Africa / Relationship between Bror and Karen / Life After Karen / Safari Guide / Literary Contributions / Later years / Did you know?

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The Adventurous Life of Bror Blixen

Early Life

Bror Fredrik von Blixen-Finecke was born on July 25, 1886, into Swedish nobility. He and his identical twin brother, Hans Gustaf von Blixen-Finecke, grew up in a privileged environment. Hans went on to become an Olympic equestrian, winning gold in the 1912 Summer Olympics, while Bror’s path led him to a life of adventure, particularly in Africa.

Bror’s parents, Baron Carl Frederik von Blixen-Finecke (1847–1919) and Countess Clara Krag-Juel-Vind-Frijs (1855–1925), hailed from distinguished Scandinavian lineages.

Bror’s family was not particularly wealthy though. They had social standing but faced financial challenges.

Bror’s maternal uncle, Count Mogens Frijs, and his tales of life in Naivasha (a town in Kenya, in the Great Rift Valley), inspired young Bror to seek his future in Africa

Karen’s Interest in Hans and Bror

Karen Dinesen, later known to the wider public with her pen name of Isak Dinesen, came from a wealthy and prominent Danish family.

Her family owned a successful estate, Rungstedlund, which provided her with ample financial stability.

Additionally, her father, Wilhelm Dinesen, was a well-known author and military man, contributing to the family’s social standing and wealth.

Karen was initially interested in Bror’s identical twin brother, Hans Gustaf von Blixen-Finecke. Hans had a charismatic presence that attracted Karen, but did not reciprocate Karen’s romantic interest.

Marriage and Move to Africa

Once Hans rejected Karen, it was Bror who eventually pursued her. Bror’s charm and adventurous nature eventually won Karen over, leading to their decision to move to Africa in 1913 and their subsequent marriage in 1914.

The relationship between Karen and Bror was complex, characterized by a mix of love, adventure, and challenges. Despite the difficulties they faced, their time together in Africa left a significant impact on both of their lives.

Bror and Karen decided to relocate to British East Africa (now Kenya) in order to start and manage a coffee plantation with the financial support of Karen’s family.

The plantation was situated at the foot of the Ngong Hills, near Nairobi.

Despite challenges such as poor soil quality, a steep learning curve regarding how to grow coffee at high altitude, and financial difficulties, the couple’s time in Africa was transformative for both of them.

Albeit the coffee business proved incredibly challenging, Bror’s passion for hunting flourished, and Karen found inspiration for her writing, which would later culminate in her famous memoir, Out of Africa.

Relationship between Bror and Karen

Bror and Karen’s relationship was marked by both passion and turbulence.

They shared a deep love for Africa and a sense of adventure, but their marriage faced significant challenges.

Bror’s love for hunting and his adventurous lifestyle often kept him away from the plantation, leaving Karen to handle many of the day-to-day operations alone.

Bror also served in World War I in Africa with Lord Delamere’s patrols, along the border with German-Tanganyikain in the East African Campaign, which took place from 1914 to 1918. He left Karen alone managing the plantation for most part of those four years.

Soon after relocating to Africa, Bror started womanising: during their time together, Bror and Karen contracted syphilis (albeit it is not sure who infected whom, since sources recently resurfaced claim that Karen was probably infected first, during her years in Paris), which they struggled to treat in the early 20th century.

The disease had a profound impact on their health and their relationship. Despite these hardships, they maintained a bond of mutual respect and affection.

Karen often wrote about Bror in her letters and memoirs, acknowledging his prominent role in her African adventure.

Bror’s infidelity naturally strained their marriage: he had numerous affairs, which Karen found difficult to forgive.

Their relationship became increasingly distant, and by 1921, they were living separately. Despite their personal issues, they continued to collaborate on the management of the plantation until its eventual failure in 1923, due to financial difficulties and a devastating fire.

Karen, too, found solace outside their marriage. She fell deeply in love with the English big-game hunter Denys Finch Hatton (albeit it is not know if their relationship remained on a platonic level only).

Their relationship became one of the most significant aspects of her life in Africa. Denys (who also had relationships with other women at the time, including with legendary Kenyan aviator and author Beryl Markham) was a frequent visitor to Karen’s home, and their bond grew stronger over time, providing her with emotional support and inspiration for her writing.

The divorce between Bror and Karen in 1925 marked the end of their marital relationship, but not their connection. Karen remained in Africa for some time, continuing to write and draw inspiration from her experiences in the continent.

Tragically, Denys Finch Hatton died in a plane crash in 1931, a loss that profoundly affected Karen.

Bror, on the other hand, fully embraced the life of a safari guide and hunter. Despite the end of their marriage, they both spoke of each other with a sense of nostalgia and respect in their later years.

Life After Karen

After his divorce from Karen, Bror Blixen married the British aristocrat Jacqueline Harriett “Cockie” Hoogterp in 1928.

Bror and Cockie remained in Africa and managed Singu, a 5,000 acres property at Babati, owned by Blixen’s first hunting client Dick Cooper. In 1929, Blixen concentrated on his safari business and became Cooper’s East Africa agent.

The safari work proved quite profitable particularly because of money-rich American clients, and enabled the Blixens to purchase their own farm at Ndasagu.

In 1932, while Cockie was visiting her mother in England, Blixed was visited in Kenya by the Swedish adventurer and aviator Eva Dickson: he and Eva became lovers and Cockie decided to break up with him.

“I have never regretted anything — except leaving Blix. He was the love of my life.”

— Cockie Hoogterp

In 1935, Bror and Cockie divorced, and the following year he married Eva in New York: they spent their honeymoon together with Ernest Hemingway and his wife Pauline Pfeiffer, sailing around Cuba and the Bahamas.

Eva Dickson, a Swedish explorer and rally driver (she is the first woman to have ever crossed the Sahara by automobile) was a remarkable woman in her own right, totally sharing Bror’s zest for adventure.

Unfortunately, their time together was cut short when Eva died in a car crash outside Baghdad in March 1938, on her way back from Calcutta after having been forced to give up her big dream of driving the Silk Road to Beijing.

Bror didn’t learn about her death until the following July 28th, 1938, and he was devastated by the news.

Safari Guide

“Hunting with Blix was a magnificent experience”

— One of Bror’s clients

After divorcing Karen and leaving behind the failure of the coffee plantation, Bror stayed in Africa and became a celebrated big-game hunter and safari guide.

His clients included European royalty and American celebrities such as the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VIII) and the writer Ernest Hemingway.

Known for his expertise, charisma, and bravery, Bror led many thrilling and dangerous hunts across the African wilderness. His adventures and lifestyle contributed significantly to the romanticized image of Africa during that era.

In his book, “The Man Whom Women Loved” published in 1987, Baron Bror Blixen’s nephew, Ulf Aschan, gave a vivid portrait of his grandfather as a celebrated character in East Africa: coffee planter, white hunter, trailblazer, explorer, and philanderer: “a merry cheerful man who was always in a good mood.”

Bror also had nerves of steel:

“he doesn’t shoot a charging elephant at ten feet, because he knows it’s a mock charge.”

Beryl Markham was also quoted saying:

“Bror was the toughest, most durable white hunter ever to snicker at the fanfare of safari or to shoot a charging buffalo between the eyes while debating whether his sundown drink would be gin or whiskey... The mould has been broken.”

Literary Contributions

Bror Blixen was not only an adventurer but also an author.

He penned his memoir, African Hunter, which was published in 1937. The book offers a vivid account of his life and expeditions in Africa, reflecting his deep admiration for the continent’s landscapes and wildlife.

To this day, African Hunter remains a classic in hunting literature, capturing the spirit of early 20th-century safari life.

Later Years

When the second world war broke out, Bror Blixen wanted to go back to Europe to do his part in the war. He managed to raise enough money in the United States to buy a field hospital, which he brought across to Namsos in Norway. Here the war raged between the Germans and the Norwegians.

The Germans, however, had the upper hand, and Bror and the hospital staff were forced to flee from the Germans across the border to Sweden.
Bror spent the remaining years of his life, from 1940 to 1946, in a small cottage on the Näsbyholm estate.

Bror Blixen’s adventurous life came to an abrupt end on March 4th, 1946 in a car accident where he was a passenger, near his estate in Sweden. The accident was severe, and he succumbed to his injuries shortly after. He was only 59 years old.

—Alberto @

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Did you know?

Karen Blixen, thirty years after her first safari with Bror, was quoted saying:

“If I should wish anything back of my life, it would be to go on safari once again with Bror Blixen.”

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“I want to be let alone”

— Greta Garbo, 1955

Few figures in the 20th century managed to turn silence into an art form quite like Greta Garbo. Born in Sweden, crowned by Hollywood, and later self‑exiled into near‑myth, she remains one of cinema’s most enduring enigmas: a woman who understood the power of retreat long before fame became impossible to escape.

Table of Contents: Early Years / Education / Becoming Garbo / Hollywood / Career / Personal Life / Cecil Beaton / Betrayal / Her Art Collection/ Later Years / Did you know?

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Early Years

Greta Lovisa Gustafsson was born on September 18th, 1905, in a small flat on Blekingegatan Street, in the working‑class district of Södermalm, Stockholm.

Her parents, Karl Alfred Gustafsson and Anna Lovisa Karlsson, worked hard to keep the household together: her father was a laborer, while her mother worked at a jam‑factory. Greta was the youngest of three children, with an older brother, Sven, and a sister, Alva.

The Gustafssons had little: their home had no hot water or plumbing, and winters were long and severe.

Greta later recalled those years as “eternally gray.”

When her father died in 1920, she was only fourteen. School ended abruptly and she had to start working, first selling newspapers, then as a soap‑lather girl in a barber’s shop, making a few kronor a week that went straight to her mother.

Even then, she was observant, noting people’s gestures, moods, and silences. This quiet watchfulness would one day define her acting.

Education

Greta attended public elementary school until the age of thirteen.

Two years after her father’s death, a rare light of opportunity appeared. In 1922, she was admitted to Stockholm’s Royal Dramatic Training Academy (the “Dramaten”), one of Europe’s leading theater schools at the time.

There she met director Mauritz Stiller, who recognized something magnetic behind her reserved demeanor.

Believing she possessed natural screen presence, Stiller took her under his wing, mentoring her, shaping her voice and poise.

Under his guidance, she won a role in The Saga of Gösta Berling (1924). Her beauty, tinged with melancholy, captivated critics.

Becoming Garbo

Greta’s transformation from Greta Gustafsson to Greta Garbo was the creation of her mentor, Mauritz Stiller.

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