As well as bombarding publishers and agents with letters offering my writing services in the early days, I also approached individuals and organisations that I found interesting and that I thought might like to commission books or articles. One of the earliest commissions I received as a result was from a drama school in South Kensington called the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art. It had been the training ground for a number of stars including both Julian Fellowes, who went on to create Downton Abbey, and Hugh Bonneville who played the lead in the series.
Founded in 1926 the school evolved from being the hobby of two gentlemen from good families who had an interest in music and drama (particularly opera), to being one of the main drama schools in London. My task was to interview as many people as possible who were still alive in order to write a history. The interviewees ranged from a grand old lady called Dolly who received me for tea at her stately Kensington home wearing a tea gown, to Terence Stamp, who was part of the new generation of young working-class actors then becoming global stars. Although proudly working class and previously a flat-mate to Michael Caine, Stamp was by then living in an apartment in the Albany, Piccadilly, and suggested we meet for tea across the road at Fortnum & Mason, where he was a regular customer.
The sixties may have witnessed a social revolution, but the old world of the London Establishment, epitomised by Christina Foyle and Dolly in her tea gown, still held an enduring appeal for those who could afford to join it. In the coming years, of course, the avalanche of new media and new stars and reality show celebrities would finish the job of change that was started by men like Stamp and Caine and old London society would eventually be swamped in a tsunami of foreign wealth.
The mould was eventually broken and now it is hard to conceive how it could ever have seemed unusual for two men from ordinary backgrounds to rise to such heights of celebrity, but the world’s nostalgic longing for what came before can be clearly seen in the viewing figures for Downton Abbey and royal weddings.