About the Author

Born in 1892, Lady Diana Manners became an active member of The Coterie in the 1910s, an influential group of young English aristocrats and intellectuals. Soon after the First World War she married one of the last surviving members of the group, Duff Cooper, a politician and writer, and in 1929 gave birth to their son.

Following her successful career as an actress, Lady Diana Cooper became a celebrated hostess in Paris, where her husband was British Ambassador at the end of the Second World War. Following Duff's retirement they continued to live in France until his death in 1954. He had been created Viscount Norwich two years earlier, but his wife insisted on using her existing title and was known as Lady Diana Cooper until her death in 1986 at the age of 93.