generation, who were called the Bright Young Things, a phrase taken up by Evelyn Waugh who became a close friend of Nancy. Her only complaint was that her clothes were not as fashionable as those of her fellow debutantes. They were home-made and she felt that they looked it. Although she had a small allowance from her parents, it did not go far into paying for the lifestyle to which she aspired. Her passion for ‘abroad’ and for stylish clothes were not fulfilled until her novels brought in enough income for a Paris flat and couture by Dior.
Diana was becoming increasingly bored at home but this boredom was soon to be relieved by a trip to Paris where Sydney took the girls in the autumn of 1926, mainly to settle Diana into a day school where she could be ‘finished’ and also improve her French. The family stayed in a modest hotel close to the home of Sydney’s friends the Helleus. Monsieur Helleu was an artist and he became obsessed with Diana’s beauty, painting her often and becoming a close friend. The family returned home for Christmas but afterwards Diana was allowed to go back to Paris and live in a boarding house while she completed her year at school. She travelled as far as Paris with her cousins Winston Churchill and his son Randolph, who were on their way to Italy to meet Mussolini.
Nancy and Pam had already lived in Paris so Diana was not short of friends and she made the most of her new-found freedom. Her great sorrow was that M. Helleu died during this time. He had been a faithful admirer and she mourned for him, but it didn’t stop her having a good time in a city where it was not compulsory to be chaperoned everywhere she went.
Keeping a diary of her activities, however, proved her undoing. When she returned home for the Easter holidays she made the mistake of leaving her diary open in the sitting room while she went out for a walk. Sydney read the entry which described a visit to the cinema alone with a young man one afternoon in Paris. This was an unforgivable crime and Diana was forbidden to return to school and condemned to spend the summer with the younger children in Devon. It was a terrible punishment and because she was bored, literally to tears, this must have contributed greatly to Diana’s determination to get away from the family home.
By the late summer of 1927 the family home was no longer their beloved Asthall, but Swinbrook, which was entirely built to David’s design with Sydney, mysteriously, since she had excellent taste and was a superb homemaker, playing no part. Instead of nestling in a village it was perched on top of a hill and was draughty and uncomfortable. The children each had a bedroom of their own in which was a small fireplace, but they were not allowed a fire. The only warm place was the enormous linen cupboard with its distinctive smell of airing clothes, immortalised as the Hons Cupboard in Nancy’s The Pursuit of Love . It was here that the younger children, Unity, Decca (Jessica) and Debo, gathered to hatch schemes, work out the rules for their new Hons Society or talk to one another in one of their special languages, Boudledidge spoken by Unity and Decca, or Honnish which was the secret means of communication between Decca and Debo. What the older children especially missed was the large library at Asthall, set apart from the house, with their bedrooms above which they had made especially their own. But family life was changing fast and it would not be long before Nancy, Pam and Diana were leaving home for good. Tom was already studying in Vienna and in the end it was only Debo who really regarded Swinbrook as home and was happy there.
Eventually, David and Sydney relented towards Diana and in the autumn she was allowed to stay with the Churchill family at Chartwell, their country home. Here she met some very interesting people, including top-grade scientist Professor Lindemann, who became Churchill’s chief scientific advisor during the next war. Lindemann
Diana was becoming increasingly bored at home but this boredom was soon to be relieved by a trip to Paris where Sydney took the girls in the autumn of 1926, mainly to settle Diana into a day school where she could be ‘finished’ and also improve her French. The family stayed in a modest hotel close to the home of Sydney’s friends the Helleus. Monsieur Helleu was an artist and he became obsessed with Diana’s beauty, painting her often and becoming a close friend. The family returned home for Christmas but afterwards Diana was allowed to go back to Paris and live in a boarding house while she completed her year at school. She travelled as far as Paris with her cousins Winston Churchill and his son Randolph, who were on their way to Italy to meet Mussolini.
Nancy and Pam had already lived in Paris so Diana was not short of friends and she made the most of her new-found freedom. Her great sorrow was that M. Helleu died during this time. He had been a faithful admirer and she mourned for him, but it didn’t stop her having a good time in a city where it was not compulsory to be chaperoned everywhere she went.
Keeping a diary of her activities, however, proved her undoing. When she returned home for the Easter holidays she made the mistake of leaving her diary open in the sitting room while she went out for a walk. Sydney read the entry which described a visit to the cinema alone with a young man one afternoon in Paris. This was an unforgivable crime and Diana was forbidden to return to school and condemned to spend the summer with the younger children in Devon. It was a terrible punishment and because she was bored, literally to tears, this must have contributed greatly to Diana’s determination to get away from the family home.
By the late summer of 1927 the family home was no longer their beloved Asthall, but Swinbrook, which was entirely built to David’s design with Sydney, mysteriously, since she had excellent taste and was a superb homemaker, playing no part. Instead of nestling in a village it was perched on top of a hill and was draughty and uncomfortable. The children each had a bedroom of their own in which was a small fireplace, but they were not allowed a fire. The only warm place was the enormous linen cupboard with its distinctive smell of airing clothes, immortalised as the Hons Cupboard in Nancy’s The Pursuit of Love . It was here that the younger children, Unity, Decca (Jessica) and Debo, gathered to hatch schemes, work out the rules for their new Hons Society or talk to one another in one of their special languages, Boudledidge spoken by Unity and Decca, or Honnish which was the secret means of communication between Decca and Debo. What the older children especially missed was the large library at Asthall, set apart from the house, with their bedrooms above which they had made especially their own. But family life was changing fast and it would not be long before Nancy, Pam and Diana were leaving home for good. Tom was already studying in Vienna and in the end it was only Debo who really regarded Swinbrook as home and was happy there.
Eventually, David and Sydney relented towards Diana and in the autumn she was allowed to stay with the Churchill family at Chartwell, their country home. Here she met some very interesting people, including top-grade scientist Professor Lindemann, who became Churchill’s chief scientific advisor during the next war. Lindemann
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