A lion in the bedroom - Pat Cavendish O'Neill - Jonathan Ball - 2005 - Paperback in good condition.
The author was born into a world of enormous riches, eccentricity and intrigue. Her mother, Enid Lindeman of the Australian wine family, was a famous beauty who married four times. Two husbands were millionaires, two had titles and none lived long. Somerset Maugham jokingly dubbed his dazzling friend Enid 'Lady Killmore' but others, including Vanity Fair magazine, were less kind. Here Pat tells the story of her charmed life among the glittering names of the twentieth century - Woolworth heiress Barbara Hutton, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Gianni Agnelli, Princess Grace and the Hollywood crowd and the day everything changed for her, when a lover in Africa presented her with a tiny lion cub and she entered a world more magical and inspiring than anything she had known before. When bountiful Mama bought her a beautiful farm just outside Nairobi she was able to make a new life. While bringing up her lioness, Pat surrounded herself with a houseful of animals, from Joseph the somersaulting chimpanzee to Duma the cheetah, all rescued, like Tana, from a terrible fate. Pat, who was only too familiar with the savagery of humans, understood and loved wild animals. At home with Tana, Pat fell in love with one of Kenya's famous white hunters, Stan Lawrence Brown, who ran safaris for wealthy tourists. The woman who couldn't bear to kill a mouse fell for a man who hunted to make his living. Twentieth-century Kenya was home for many aristocratic and wealthy British expatriates. Affairs, dangerous liaisons and sexual dares were commonplace in these circles. This was the scene for White Mischief, the story of the high-living Happy Valley crowd which culminated in the murder of Joss Hay, Earl of Errol. Other famous Kenyan names - Lord Errol, Lady Idina, Lord Delamere, Diana Delamere, hoteliers Tubby and Jack Block of Treetops fame, actor William Holden, who part-owned the Mount Kenya safari club - turn up in Pat's story. A close family friend, and another great eccentric, was the aviatrix and horse trainer Beryl Markham, the first to fly the Atlantic from east to west.
