In this gorgeous, entertaining narrative of bohemian aristocracy, Sofka Zinovieff probes the mysteries of her grandparents and the third man in their marriage: Gerald, the complex and talented heir to a legendary house, its walls lined with priceless art and its gardens roamed by a bevy of doves, where he entertained everyone from Igor Stravinsky to Gertrude Stein. And then a pregnant Jennifer moved into Faringdon in 1942, creating a formidable ménage à trois. Robert and Gerald made an unlikely couple, especially because they lived together at Faringdon House when homosexuality was illegal. He also owned one of Britain's loveliest stately homes, Faringdon House, in Oxfordshire, which under his stewardship became a beacon of sybaritic beauty. Stout, eccentric and significantly older, Gerald was a composer, writer and aesthete-a creative aristocrat most at home in the company of the era's best and brightest minds. But by the time Robert met and married Jennifer, he had already been involved with a man-Gerald, Lord Berners-for more than a decade.

Robert Heber-Percy was a dashing young man who would rather have a drink than open a book, so his involvement with Jennifer Fry, a gorgeous socialite famous for her style and charm, was not surprising. Like The Bolter and Portrait of a Marriage, this beguiling, heady tale of a scandalous ménage à trois among England's upper classes combines memoir and biography to re-create an unforgettably decadent world.Īmong the glittering stars of British society, Sofka Zinovieff's grandparents lived and loved with abandon.

First Childhood by Lord Berners