Books

Juliette’s forebear, Sir James Bacon, was the leading figure in the legal establishment of England throughout a great part of the 19th century. Appointed Vice Chancellor of England, and living for almost a century, he was widely known well beyond the legal profession, his obituary appearing in 1895 on the other side of the Atlantic, in the New York Times. His son would succeed him as a noted High Court judge. One of Sir James’ daughters, Lydia, was the grandmother of Rose Gordon-Clark, Juliette’s mother (see Rose & Henri ).

Sir James’ memoirs, discovered afresh by Juliette in the family papers 125 years after his death, and edited and published by her as The Recollections of Sir James Bacon, cast a lively and amusing light on the era, during a time of change as it approached the modernity of the 20th century. Sir James was celebrated as an unusually witty judge, one whose decisions were rarely challenged. His inspiring persona was all the more remarkable as he grew up in relatively humble circumstances, one of ten children, in Dickensian London, leaving school for work at the age of twelve, and ending up as one of the highest officials in the land.

Enterprising and talented, Sir James’ writings span his early journalism through his legal decisions and writings, to his position at the pinnacle of government. In addition to the legal world, he also chronicled the colourful procession of British society in the second half of the 19th century, through social and political crises, friends imprisoned for gambling debts, travels to Europe in an era of turmoil and reactionism, as well as the fascinating Britons he knew in this era of Oscar Wilde and George Bernard Shaw. This vivid account, published after more than a century in the family archives, is essential reading for anyone interested in the history of Britain, the evolution of its unparalleled legal tradition, and the extraordinary figures who made it possible.

A deftly amusing satire on ‘high society’ in the 1960s, an era known for “the jet-set”, by experienced Palm Beach observer and noted author Juliette de Marcellus This short novel full of recognizable characters is funny in the way of a Peter Sellers movie, but it is more than that, in that it accurately exposes the cultural differences, affectations and pretensions of American and European society, both high and low, and everything in-between.

When Texas oilman Sidney Schlatz finds he cannot launch his beautiful but shy daughter into the higher echelons of New York’s debutante scene, he decides to go over the heads of the snobbish doyennes of New York society and give a lavish international ball in Paris. However, the pitfalls in Paris are just as varied, unexpected, and intractable. The straight-shooting American businessman encounters a cross-section of European society that is every bit as difficult as any he met in New York. With unexpected consequences, his plan for the “I Love Paris Ball” combines characters from cultures totally incomprehensible to each other.

Among them are would-be movie star Tina, Hollywood producer Sam Kraznik, a handsome but aimless European royal prince, the pleasant but inconsequential high-life seeker Clarky Finch III, a “trust-fund baby” forever trying to find out where ‘the party’ is, an imposing but financially embarrassed French duke fleeing his country’s tax man, a bad 1960s British rock band, a questionable arms dealer, a charming heroine, and, most genuine of all, the eccentric denizens of a small village in Normandy, straight out of a French Fellini movie. There is also the destiny-changing presence of a little Pekinese dog who makes all the humans seem silly.