Clarissa - Hugo Vickers

The magnetic portrait of Clarissa Eden, Countess of Avon, and a swiftly vanishing age of British history.

'A vivid portrayal of a remarkable and unusual woman, her world, and her times. Hugely enjoyable.' - JUNG CHANG, multi-million-copy bestselling author of Wild Swans

Clarissa Eden, Countess of Avon, wife of Prime Minister Anthony Eden, once famously said: 'For the past few weeks I have really felt as if the Suez Canal was flowing through my drawing-room.'

With her impressive intellect and acerbic wit, she was a highly influential muse to many leading figures over several decades.

At Oxford in the 1940s she fascinated dons and undergraduates alike. She went on to work in the film world for Alexander Korda and for George Weidenfeld at Contact Magazine. She was a close friend of Cecil Beaton, James Pope-Hennessy, Lucian Freud, Isaiah Berlin, and Lord Goodman. She fascinated Greta Garbo.

After an early Bohemian life, she became a politically active wife to Eden when he was Foreign Secretary and Prime Minister, particularly during the Suez Crisis in 1956.

Her death at 101 in 2021 has opened the way for this enthralling and revealing biography by the widely admired biographer Hugo Vickers. He knew her well for over 40 years, and consigned her revealing private papers and sharply written diaries to him.

Here also are first hand contributions from friends such as Antonia Fraser. Clarissa Eden's story sheds invaluable light on a rapidly vanishing age and an extraordinary woman.

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Critical acclaim for Clarissa:

A The Week Book of the Week

'Hugo Vickers brings tremendous authority to this life of one of the most significant and intriguing political wives of the last century. The integrity of his scholarship and his deep personal knowledge of his subject make this a compelling and definitive work.' - Professor Simon Heffer

'An engrossing and intimate biography of a remarkable and fascinating woman. Hugo Vickers deftly captures Clarissa's enigmatic personality and the glamorous world in which she moved.' - Robert Harris

'Affectionate, crisp and gossipy . . . What a lost world this book captures' - Ysenda Maxtone Graham, The Times

'A lissom, festive and very endearing biography' - Richard Davenport-Hines, Literary Review

'She made Hugo Vickers her literary executor in 1985, meaning that he had complete access to her diaries and letters' - Lynn Barber, The Daily Telegraph

'It is hard to think of another living author with such a wide knowledge of Clarissa's world, and Vickers's diligent, skilful biography is unfailingly readable - John Jolliffe, The Spectator