Alaister Cooke
I remember before each episode began on Masterpiece Theater, Alaister Cooke used to talk about the real lady on which this series was based. Rosa something.
shareIt was based on a woman named Rosa Lewis who was called The Duchess of Jermyn Street. She ran the Cavendish Hotel in London. They borrowed a lot of the details from her life for this story, [spoiler]including her being pressured into a marriage to a wastrel who she threw out and a relationship with the then Prince of Wales who later became Edward VII.
They invented the romance with Charlie, the illegitimate child and her hotel staff was much larger of course[/spoiler]
If you want to read something written by a contemporary of hers, Evelyn Waugh created a character based on her in his book Vile Bodies.
Thank you! I will check out the Waugh book.
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