"One weekend Cecil Beaton called his childhood friend, the reclusive poet Stephen Tennant, to see if we could pay him a visit. He hadn't left his bedroom for years, so Cecil was delighted when he said yes. Stephen''s wealthy mother had published his poetry when he was still a precocious schoolboy, and he had been an early influence on Cecil. Wilsford Manor was in a state of poetic dereliction, draped in spider webs. With flowing hennaed locks, Stephen received us in bed, serving champagne and singing campy old music-hall songs with back-up by his butler George."
A Chequered Past by Peter Schlesinger.
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