Word: cliveden
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There was another swimming pool in Christine Keeler's life before the one at Cliveden. As a young girl, she would often swim in the muddy gravel pits near the dingy, Thames-side town of Wraysbury. Envious of her looks, her girl friends called her the "Goddess of the Gravel Pits." "I remember Christine stepping from the water," says one childhood chum. "Her homemade bikini of yellow jersey wool clung...
Charming but Wary. That very same weekend Christine had met Jack Profumo for the first time. It was at Cliveden, and Christine, who was visiting Ward at his cottage on the grounds, was stealing a nude moonlight swim in Astor's pool. Suddenly Bill Astor appeared with some guests, including Profumo. Frantically clutching a towel around her dripping self, Christine was introduced to both Jack and his wife, Valerie Hobson. "She was very charming," said Christine, "but seemed wary of me." Next day, Christine brought Ivanov out to Cliveden, and the Russian and Profumo held a swimming race, which...
...Scott-James, is the "sleaziness of the crowd with which the War Minister mixed." Says Muggeridge: "Fifty years ago people would have gone to Maida Vale and patronized one of the grandes cocottes. If there is anything new in this, it is the overlapping of the social life of Cliveden and of Ward." In short, Britain may be in danger of abandoning Actress Mrs. Pat Campbell's celebrated axiom about Edwardian London: "You can do anything you please here, so long as you don't do it on the street and frighten the horses...
Coexistence. Of noble Italian descent, John Dennis Profumo had every qualification to reach the Tories' top ranks: Harrow and Oxford, fine war record, brains, drive, and a beautiful wife, Movie Actress Valerie (Great Expectations) Hobson. Together, the Pro-fumos were weekending at Cliveden, famed country estate of Lord and Lady Astor, when they were introduced to Christine in 1961. Also present: Stephen Ward, who had a cottage on the place. Thereafter, Valerie stayed home while Jack visited Christine at Ward's flat in Wimpole Mews. What the War Minister never knew was that Christine had another regular visitor...
...chain of events. Christine Keeler failed to show up for Johnnie's trial, and the leading newspapers hinted that Christine feared cross-examination about her private life and had dropped out of sight to protect her prominent friends. On top of that came news that Ward's Cliveden house, the scene of many a fashionable party and fortuitous introduction, had been ransacked; Ward's letters were stolen, and scattered all over the floor were a nude photograph of Christine and a slew of pornographic pictures, which Ward claimed were not his. In Whitehall and in the House...