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Step behind the hotel room doors of The Chatsfield, London…
1921, London
The first time the doors open on London’s newest hotel – The Chatsfield - disillusioned soldier Justin York expects to be bored by the wealth and glamour on display. Instead he’s entranced by the star of the show – socialite Miss Vera Milton-Kerr… Vera’s felt nothing but ice in her veins since The Great War, but Justin’s dark-eyed gaze has her burning up! With a key to The Chatsfield’s legendary Dream Suite, he offers her one night only… Resisting their chemistry is impossible, but hoping for more than one frenzied night is Vera’s biggest risk of all!
The Couple in the Dream Suite
Marguerite Kaye As far as I know, there’s never been a gossip columnist called Cordelia Confidential, but the 1920s did see the beginnings of this feature in the main popular newspapers, and I based mine on an excerpt from the Daily Mail published around about the same time. Some of the party goers Cordelia mentions in the article which opens this story were real people. Lady Eleanor Smith, Elizabeth Ponsonby, Zita and Baby Jungman, are credited by D J Taylor, as some of the original Bright Young Things whose story is told in his excellent book of the same name. Charlie Chaplin was a superstar by 1921, though he didn’t actually visit London until September of that year, and to be honest, I’ve no idea at all where Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford really were when I added them to the Chatsfield’s illustrious guest list – they were just married a few weeks earlier. While there are a number of newspapers called The People’s Tribune published currently, to my knowledge there was none in circulation when Red Lancaster wrote his articles for them. He is entirely my own invention, though his rhetoric is my very small tribute to JB Priestley’s English Journey, which was published in 1933. There has recently been some debate about the ‘true’ state of the economy in the immediate post-war years, with the extent of the depression, and the impact of unemployment being questioned by some economic historians. The unemployment figures quoted in Red’s article are, however, factual, and what matters to me, in this book, is the perception of how things were at the time. There was a growing and significant amount of industrial unrest. Britain was no longer the great industrial power it had once been. Growth was slow. ‘Real’ wages were falling. Conditions, for the majority of the working-class, were abominable – and you only have to read Priestly to get a taste of this, a decade later. Which does not mean that the Great War changed nothing – I’ve touched on some of those very significant changes in my World War I trilogy, Never Forget Me. And to end on a positive note, I’d like to think that in the 1922 General Election, Justin Yorke, aided by his wife Vera (who, if she’d had her thirtieth birthday by then, would have been a voter for the first time) would become one of the newly-elected MPs. I’d like to think that Justin and Vera’s happy ever after really did allow them to make a difference.
Contents
Dear Reader Note: Chatsfield Chatter How Justin Met Vera Reflections Dream a Little Dream
Revelation and Unravellings
Wet Dreams
Dare to Dream
Chatsfield, The Next Chapter
It’s the place everyone’s talking about, and it’s where everybody who is anybody will be – including yours truly!
Mr DAVID CHATSFIELD’S brand new hotel in Mayfair will open tonight with what promises to be the party of the Season. The smart set, who need no introduction from me, will be there: LADY ELEANOR SMITH, Miss ELIZABETH PONSONBY, and of course the Misses ZITA and BABY JUNGMAN with their eponymous escorts, to name but a few. The world of the silver screen will be represented by the nation’s favourite tramp, Mr CHARLIE CHAPLIN, and that golden couple, Miss MARY PICKFORD and Mr DOUGLAS FAIRBANKS.
So what’s in store for us beside oodles of champagne? A selection of dishes designed to tempt the most jaded of palettes will be served in the Chatsfield’s white and gold dining room, which has been designed to resemble a wedding cake. The hotel’s foyer, resplendent with Romanesque arches and pillars, will be set up to provide guests with entertainment, including some songs written especially for the occasion by Mr NOEL COWARD.
Rumour has it that the very beautiful Miss VERA MILTON-KERR will be celebrating the occasion with a unique and strictly one-off appearance on stage. Miss Milton-Kerr, as regular readers of this column will know, is the long-term glamorous companion of one of London’s most eligible bachelors, Mr DEXTER MAXWELL. Will Mr Maxwell use this auspicious occasion to make their relationship official? If so, you can guarantee that you’ll hear it from me first.
Dancing at the Chatsfield Hotel will take place in the Mirror Ballroom, and will without a shadow of a doubt go on until dawn, so it’s just as well that yours truly has invested in a new pair of slippers. Then into the wee small hours? Well, I’m not one to gossip, but the hotel boasts a number of extravagant suites, each with their own unique style. As to who will have the honour of occupying that most decadent of all, the Dream Suite? Darlings, just watch this space!
Cordelia Confidential, Daily Express, 29 April 1921
It’s no longer the done thing, I’m told, to talk about the War. A new generation of the elite, those privileged few with wealth and power, want us to put those bleak years behind us. If one were to believe the gossip columns in the popular press, the only thing this new generation are interested in is partying all night and sleeping all day.
Is this true? I hope not.
In February unemployment exceeded one million. The chances are that it will top two million by the summer. The current miners’ strike is only one of a record number of pay disputes going on all across Britain. Our country is no longer a green and pleasant land, but a land of mass unemployment and mass misery. Too many families who sacrificed their fathers, husbands and sons to the Great War have been rewarded with the humiliation of the dole.
We have been wounded, as a people and a nation, by that War to end all Wars. Until we can reward those who fought in the trenches with a better world, with that simplest of things, a decent wage for a decent day’s work, we cannot forget. We must never forget.
‘Red’ Lancaster, The People’s Tribune
, 29 April 1921
