The Riviera Set: Glitz, Glamour, and the Hidden World of High Society

Mary S. Lovell

Jan 2018 · Tantor Media Inc · Narrated by Jill Rolls

About this audiobook

The Riviera Set reveals the story of the group of people who lived, partied, bed-hopped, and politicked at the Château de l'Horizon near Cannes, over the course of forty years from the time when Coco Chanel made southern French tans fashionable in the twenties to the death of the playboy Prince Aly Khan in 1960. At the heart of dynamic group was the amazing Maxine Elliott, the daughter of a fisherman from Connecticut, who built the beautiful art deco Château and brought together the likes of Noel Coward, the Aga Khan, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, and two very saucy courtesans, Doris Castlerosse and Daisy Fellowes, who set out to be dangerous distractions to Winston Churchill as he worked on his journalism and biographies during his "wilderness years" in the thirties. After the War the story continued as the Château changed hands and Prince Aly Khan used it to entertain the Hollywood set, as well as launch his seduction of and eventual marriage to Rita Hayworth. Bringing a bygone era back to life, Mary Lovell cements her spot as one of our top social historians in this captivating and evocative new book.

About the author

Mary S. Lovell is a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. She is the author of eight previous biographies, including the bestselling The Sisters: The Saga of the Mitford Family and The Churchills.

Jill Rolls is a British/American dual national, born and raised in London, England. She is an experienced narrator with both fiction and nonfiction credits, and brings a range of accents-including British RP, Cockney, Scottish, Welsh, Australian, French, and South African-to her work.