Goodwood

Goodwood

Wednesday 4 May 2011

In the arms of an... Icon?

As a young woman I worked in London, commuting across Essex to Liverpool Street, and then via the underground to Mayfair where I worked for Coutts, the Queens’ bank.

It was a dull morning, I was wearing a midi length cream Macintosh that made me feel slender and tall and my favourite green patent shoes, (really they were fabulous!) and I’d forgotten my umbrella, it was drizzling.

The doorman at the Connaught Hotel appeared with his large umbrella and without a thought, I ducked under it.

I collided with a man, who gently enquired, ‘Are you alright my dear? I’m so dreadfully sorry.’

I looked into those eyes, I knew who the gentleman was… the debonair man who held me carefully in his hands and asked: ‘are you sure you’re alright?’

I heard his voice, his rich dulcet tone, it made my heart stop and then just for good measure it did a quick somersault! My mind turned to cotton wool, my mouth became as dry as a sponge and my knees were in danger of buckling.

I did open my mouth, I did attempt to speak but honestly no words came. I closed my mouth. Then I tried again, nothing much, just mumbled words as I turned into a flibbertigibbet.

The doorman explained who I was and then my matinee idol of a gentleman guided me by the elbow to where I worked... all of twenty feet.

The bank staff saw him.

They saw me in the arms of David Niven!

"Well, old bean, life is really so bloody awful that I feel it’s my absolute duty to be chirpy and try and make everybody else happy too." David Niven.

In his time David Niven was regarded as one of the sexiest men in Hollywood!

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