Valery Giscard d'Estaing, 83, the former French president, has written romantic novel clearly modelled on himself and the late Diana, Princess of Wales. To be published next month, Giscard's "The Princess and the President" recounts the secret and passionate love of a French leader and a Welsh Princess.President Jacques-Henri Lambertye and Princess Patricia of Cardiff meet at the closing dinner of a G7 summit at a time when the young British royal has been left miserable by her husband's adultery.
To be published next month, Giscard's "The Princess and the President" recounts the secret and passionate love of a French leader and a Welsh Princess.
President Jacques-Henri Lambertye and Princess Patricia of Cardiff meet at the closing dinner of a G7 summit at a time when the young British royal has been left miserable by her husband's adultery.
I thought Princess <another name> of Cardiff would have been better, though.
The newspaper praises the author for his knowledge of French literature, and details about the personalities of the day and the palaces where they meet. However, the novel departs from reality in at least one key detail. Lambertye is easily re-elected for a second presidential term, while Giscard d'Estaing was voted out in 1981 after one - just two months before Lady Diana Spencer married Prince Charles to become the Princess of Wales. In that year, Diana was 20 while Giscard d'Estaing was 55.
The newspaper praises the author for his knowledge of French literature, and details about the personalities of the day and the palaces where they meet.
However, the novel departs from reality in at least one key detail.
Lambertye is easily re-elected for a second presidential term, while Giscard d'Estaing was voted out in 1981 after one - just two months before Lady Diana Spencer married Prince Charles to become the Princess of Wales.
In that year, Diana was 20 while Giscard d'Estaing was 55.
The face of the 60s is herself turning 60. She talks about fame, fate, fun ... and middle-age spreadIcons of youth and beauty are not supposed to grow old, let alone grow old gracefully. They are supposed to live fast and die young, or else rage against the dying of the light with fidelity issues and plastic surgery. So it is against the odds, really, that Twiggy turns 60 today still beautiful (even if the saucer eyes are now edged by fine lines rather than by the three pairs of false eyelashes she wore when she was the Face of 1966), still a working model, and with little outward sign of the squeamishness that surrounds the issue of ageing in many women in the public eye.It is a few days shy of her birthday when I arrive to have tea with Twiggy in her London flat. Being a deeply nosy person, I am pleased Twiggy has suggested I meet her at home; surprised, too, because although I have often seen her at catwalk shows and Marks & Spencer events, I have not properly met Twiggy before, and in recent years she has gained a reputation for being a little prickly, so I was expecting to be summoned to a supervised interview in a smart restaurant or an agent's office. The apartment is on an elegant street, with gleaming brass knockers on tasteful black gloss front doors and the kind of expensive, leafy hush that cushions central London's garden squares from the hoi polloi. Twiggy lives here with the actor Leigh Lawson, her husband of 21 years, their children having long since grown up. I am expecting something cheerful and modern inside, wooden floorboards and spot lighting perhaps, but instead it is shabby chic with a faint scent of bohemia, more redolent of Twiggy the 60s icon than of Twiggy the M&S model. There are Turkish rugs and Balinese sculptures, walls covered with an eclectic collection of paintings, lush houseplants, a friendly cat, a piano crowded with photographs in silver frames.
Icons of youth and beauty are not supposed to grow old, let alone grow old gracefully. They are supposed to live fast and die young, or else rage against the dying of the light with fidelity issues and plastic surgery. So it is against the odds, really, that Twiggy turns 60 today still beautiful (even if the saucer eyes are now edged by fine lines rather than by the three pairs of false eyelashes she wore when she was the Face of 1966), still a working model, and with little outward sign of the squeamishness that surrounds the issue of ageing in many women in the public eye.
It is a few days shy of her birthday when I arrive to have tea with Twiggy in her London flat. Being a deeply nosy person, I am pleased Twiggy has suggested I meet her at home; surprised, too, because although I have often seen her at catwalk shows and Marks & Spencer events, I have not properly met Twiggy before, and in recent years she has gained a reputation for being a little prickly, so I was expecting to be summoned to a supervised interview in a smart restaurant or an agent's office. The apartment is on an elegant street, with gleaming brass knockers on tasteful black gloss front doors and the kind of expensive, leafy hush that cushions central London's garden squares from the hoi polloi. Twiggy lives here with the actor Leigh Lawson, her husband of 21 years, their children having long since grown up. I am expecting something cheerful and modern inside, wooden floorboards and spot lighting perhaps, but instead it is shabby chic with a faint scent of bohemia, more redolent of Twiggy the 60s icon than of Twiggy the M&S model. There are Turkish rugs and Balinese sculptures, walls covered with an eclectic collection of paintings, lush houseplants, a friendly cat, a piano crowded with photographs in silver frames.
...just sayin' Never underestimate their intelligence, always underestimate their knowledge.
Frank Delaney ~ Ireland
Although I must say, even at my advanced age, I can't help but be distracted by a nice set. Will I ever grow up? In the end, might makes right. Nothing has changed since the caveman.
