The travel writer and the riddle of the swallowed earring

 
18 October 2012

Sir Paddy Leigh Fermor is still causing controversy from beyond the grave. Who was the lady whose earring he swallowed while trying to seduce her? That was what everyone wanted to know at last night’s launch of Artemis Cooper’s biography of the travel writer at the Travellers’ Club.

Heywood Hill boss Nicky Dunne led friends of PLF from his Curzon Street bookshop to Pall Mall past the writer’s favourite haunts and at the Travellers’ told how Paddy, while “snuggling with a lady”, once swallowed her earring. When the lady reminded him of this some time later he apologised and said: “I think it’s about time I swallowed the other one, don’t you?” Dunne suggested mischievously that the lady might be in the room. Guests including Colin Thubron, Lady Jane Wellesley, Robin Lane Fox, Jonathan Fenby, Barry Humphries and Lizzie Spender looked around but no one owned up.

“Paddy has met his match in Artemis Cooper,” said Dunne. Cooper said the book was so beautifully produced she felt as if she had won an Oscar.

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