Entitlement 
Jenny Diski
- Dangerous Muse: A Life of Caroline Blackwood by Nancy Schoenberger
At the age of 86 and with a broken hip, the Marchesa Casa-Maury was interviewed by Caroline Blackwood for her book about the last dreadful days – months, years rather – of the Duchess of Windsor. The Marchesa had been the Duke’s mistress for fifteen years when Wallis Simpson arrived on the scene. Blackwood explained to the old lady how the Duchess was being sequestered in Paris by her lawyer, Maître Suzanne Blum, who was obsessed with her, and that she was officiously being kept alive, although rumoured to be comatose, to have turned black and to have shrivelled to the size of a doll. The ancient Marchesa began shaking with laughter and continued until tears ran down her cheeks. She managed to pull herself together, but as Blackwood was leaving, started to laugh again as she tried to apologise for her behaviour.
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Jenny Diski’s new novel, Apology for the Woman Writing, will be published in November. She is currently bobbing about on the South Atlantic.
Other articles by this contributor:
Hang on to the doily · Catherine M.
The Housekeeper of a World-Shattering Theory · Mrs Freud
A Long Forgotten War · Jenny Diski writes about Promise of a Dream: A Memoir of the 1960s by Sheila Rowbotham
Mirror Images · Jenny Diski sees off Piers Morgan
XXX · Doing what we’re told
Jowls are available · ‘Second Life’
Did Jesus walk on water because he couldn’t swim? · Jewish Seafarers
Don’t think about it · The Trouble with Sonia Orwell
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