The Times Lives Less Ordinary

obituaries of the eccentric, unique and undefinable

Nigel Farndale

• Publisher: Times Books
• Year: 2022
• Print ISBN: 9780008537913
• eBook ISBN: 9780008562311
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Historical Biographies
• Index: History

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Copyright
• Note to Readers
• Contents
• Introduction
• Split Waterman: Glamorous if roguish speedway racer whose daredevil lifestyle led to him mixing with the Krays and serving time for smuggling gold
• The Earl of St Germans: Aristocrat by birth and hippy by temperament who established the Port Eliot Festival, delighted in idleness and claimed he was unable to read or write
• Baroness Trumpington: Codebreaking, chainsmoking, two-finger-flicking grande dame of British politics
• Stuart Christie: Scottish anarchist who tried to assassinate Franco
• Greg Lake: Virtuoso guitarist, songwriter and epitome of 1970s prog-rock excess who could only play when standing on his own £6,000 Persian rug
• The Rev David Johnson: Quixotic rector who liked to write spoof letters, chastise American tourists and make mischief wherever he roamed
• Margarita Pracatan: Musical entertainer whose regular slot on The Clive James Show brought a whole new meaning to the word ‘extrovert’
• Naim Attallah: Flamboyant publisher and parfumier who gave Nigella Lawson her first job
• Rod Temperton: Former fish filleter from Cleethorpes who made millions after writing the hit ‘Thriller’ for Michael Jackson but eschewed fame
• Marquess of Bath: Technicolour aristocrat and libertine known as the ‘loins of Longleat’
• Christina Smith: Idiosyncratic and colourful landlord, entrepreneur, property developer and philanthropist
• Zsa Zsa Gábor: Hungarian socialite and actress who made a success out of celebrity and was best known for having married nine times
• Simon Norton: Maths genius with a passion for bus timetables who was worth a fortune, got a first-class degree aged 17 but turned his back on academia
• ‘Magic Alex’ Mardas: Inventor who was the Beatles’ ‘scientific guru’
• Edda Tasiemka: Archivist extraordinaire who filled her house with newspaper cuttings
• Wilfred De’Ath: Vagrant, scrounger, recidivist and ex-BBC producer turned Oldie columnist
• Richard Luckett: Unworldly and whimsical Cambridge don, polymath and Pepys Librarian
• Ted Knight: Unreconstructed ‘loony left’ leader of Lambeth Council who wanted to overthrow first Mrs Thatcher then western capitalism
• Beryl Vertue: Giant of British showbusiness who was a ruthless agent for comedy greats and late in life produced Men Behaving Badly
• John Lucas: Influential philosopher who argued against determinism and had a reputation for being the most eccentric don in Oxford
• Baroness Howe of Idlicote: Formidable chairwoman of the Broadcasting Standards Commission, widow of a foreign secretary and nemesis of a prime minister
• Brigadier Jack Thomas: Military police commander who survived a landmine, bullet, rhino and faulty parachute and liked to watch TV with an owl on his head
• Diana Athill: Grande dame of English letters who found literary fame in her eighties after writing about her sex life in unflinchingly frank memoirs
• Stephen Joyce: Controversial keeper of the Joycean flame who brusquely rebuffed attempts to study his famous grandfather
• Christopher Booker: Quixotic, peppery and reliably bloody-minded, right-wing journalist and co-founder of Private Eye
• Paul Callan: Fleet Street all-rounder and model for Private Eye’s Lunchtime O’Booze whose scoops included Kray confessions and two words from Greta Garbo
• Rod Richards: Colourful Welsh Tory MP and minister known as ‘Randy Rod’ who did much to undermine John Major’s ‘back to basics’ campaign
• Fenella Fielding: Velvet-voiced actress who ranged from Carry On … to Chekhov
• Fred Hamblin: Wodehousian chemist who was a key figure in the development of plastics at ICI, once stole a steamroller and almost blew up his school
• Celia Hensman: Whimsical social scientist who led research on links between poverty and addiction and once forgot to cook for a dinner party
• Betty Dodson: Artist and sex educator who was hailed as ‘the guru of self-pleasure’ and was so frank she even made Gwyneth Paltrow blush
• Keith Murdoch: Mighty All Blacks prop who had a tempestuous relationship with the press and ‘disappeared’ after a post-match brawl in Wales
• Vincent Poklewski Koziell: Much-married Polish aristocrat, vacuum-cleaner salesman, advertising executive, banker, tireless raconteur and committed bon viveur
• Tony Nash: Short-sighted and alcohol-fuelled British bobsledder who overcame problems with fogged-up glasses to win gold in the 1964 Olympics
• Baron Clement von Franckenstein: Colourful Eton-educated son of an Austrian ambassador who moved to Hollywood and became a bit-part actor, socialite and roué
• Nicholas Mosley: Masterly novelist who bore with grace and fortitude the burden of being the oldest son of the fascist leader Sir Oswald Mosley
• Hannah Hauxwell: Dales farmer who found fame in the 1970s when a film was made about her hard and solitary life
• Raymond Butt: Gleeful physics teacher who could recite pi to 3,500 places and once memorised the entire timetable of British Rail
• Professor Norman Stone: Bacchanalian and waspish contrarian who wrote speeches for ‘Mrs T’ and liked to drink and gamble with his adoring history students
• George Pinto: Merchant banker who was sometimes forbidding, often eccentric, rarely convivial but always droll
• Lee Everett: Idiosyncratic singer who ‘outed’ her second husband Kenny Everett, but not before he was best man at her next wedding
• Irving Kanarek: Lawyer whose defence of Charles Manson was one of the most bizarre in legal history, with 200 objections in three days
• Gordon Liddy: Eccentric lawyer and mastermind of the Watergate burglaries
• Anita Pallenberg: Actress and Rolling Stones muse who not only slept with the band, but also gave them a taste for drugs, fashion and hedonism
• Peter Farrer: Tax inspector who loved taffeta skirts and became an authority on the history of cross-dressing
• April Ashley: Model, socialite and transgender rights campaigner whose reassignment surgery was part of a rollercoaster life of lovers and high drama
• Sam Leach: The hapless Beatles manager before Brian Epstein
• Maurizio ‘Zanza’ Zanfanti: Courtly Italian lothario who claimed to have bedded 6,000 women
• Dickie Jeeps: England scrum half and captain known for his practical jokes and fruity private life who went on to become president of the RFU
• Lord Denham: Popular and mildly eccentric Lords chief whip who liked to quote his cousin Nancy Mitford and stand his ground with Mrs Thatcher
• Clive Nicholls QC: Extradition expert who defended General Pinochet and was one of twin brothers who became QCs
• Professor James Campbell: Absent-minded academic who inspired generations of students as the creative doyen of Anglo-Saxon history at Oxford
• Beatrice de Cardi: Intrepid archaeologist who made important finds in the Middle East and was thought to be the world’s oldest practitioner
• Jordan Mooney: Punk muse known as ‘the original Sex Pistol’ who appeared on stage with them, guided their ‘look’ and then became a veterinary nurse
• Sir Roger Scruton: Reliably controversial foxhunting philosopher, Wagnerian, scourge of the left and author of 50 books
• Barrie Stacey: Maverick theatrical agent, self-styled ‘sandwich maker to the stars’ and author of ‘the worst showbiz memoir ever written’
• Charles Burnett III: Ostentatious multimillionaire and philanthropist who set a land-speed record in 2009 and died in a helicopter crash
• Igor and Grichka Bogdanoff: French television star twins who were known for their outlandish looks and habit of plagiarising
• Jackie Stallone: Astrologer to the stars, Big Brother contestant, ladies’ wrestling manager and mother of Sylvester Stallone
• James Crowden: Wodehousian figure who coached the Cambridge Boat Race team for 40 years and later became the Lord Lieutenant of the county
• Lady Chitty: Eccentric biographer described as ‘Virginia Woolf without the genius’ whose formative years were as strange as fiction
• ‘Rainbow’ George Weiss: ‘Dreamer and schemer’ who lived on the fringes of politics and could reduce his friend Peter Cook to hysterical laughter
• James Wharram: Free-spirited sailor who crossed the Atlantic with his two lovers
• Keith van Anderson: Guyanan steward at Lord’s and obsessive fan who became a cult figure at the home of cricket
• Ruaraidh Hilleary: Idiosyncratic Scottish adventurer and soldier
• Richard Cole: Tour manager for Led Zeppelin and hell-raiser extraordinaire
• Ardeshir Zahedi: Flamboyant Iranian ambassador to the US whose lavish, often decadent, soirées were popular with Washington’s social elite
• Sir Jeremiah Harman: Rude and erratic judge who kicked a taxi driver and had not heard of Gazza
• Nexhmije Hoxha: Formidable wife of the Albanian dictator who was known as Lady Macbeth and insisted all foreigners shave their beards
• Brigadier Charles Ritchie: Seemingly indestructible army officer who survived sharks, the IRA, cyanide, the Stasi and even a duel with shotguns
• Eve Babitz: Artist and muse who wrote a steamy autobiographical exposé of her life in Hollywood’s fast lane
• Jan Morris: Travel writer known for her gender reassignment, as well as the ‘scoop of the century’ for The Times
• John McAfee: Sometimes dangerous, often strange, but always colourful and hard-living creator of the first antivirus computer software
• Princess Emma Galitzine: Regularly marrying, free-spirited society hostess who seemed to have walked straight out of the pages of Evelyn Waugh’s Vile Bodies
• Sidney Alford: Maverick explosives expert who marched to the beat of his own drum
• Theodora di Marco: Carmelite nun with a rebellious streak who developed a penchant for negronis and had a 60-a-day cigarette habit
• Nancie Colling: Indomitable champion bowls player who later became a respected, if somewhat feared, administrator
• Rupert Chetwynd: Bohemian SAS soldier, advertising executive and adventurer who led humanitarian missions into Soviet-occupied Afghanistan
• Katherine Johnson: Brilliant NASA mathematician known as ‘the human computer’
• Sir Ken Dodd: Comic who coloured outside the lines and whose inspired lunacy was honed over a career lasting 64 years
• Index
• Acknowledgements
• Photo Credits
• About the Publisher