Samantha Cameron’s sari diplomacy
Earlier this month, Samantha Cameron caught the nation’s eye when she attended the Diwali celebrations at London’s Swaminarayan Mandir Hindu temple in a beautifully colourful and elegant sari.
But then Britain’s ‘First Lady’, whose family has a fascinating history – we tell the story of her famous great grandmother, author Enid Bagnold who wrote National Velvet, below – is more than used to causing a stir, whether it’s altercations with the Downing Street cat, her role as a fashion ambassador or being wooed by a future Prime Minister…
Samantha Cameron was born on 18 April 1971.
Her middle name is Gwendoline; her maiden name is Sheffield.
Her father, Reginald Adrian Berkeley Sheffield, is descended from King Charles II and Nell Gwyn. She is a distant cousin of Princess Diana.
She is also descended from William Jolliffe, whose company built Waterloo Bridge, Dartmoor Prison and London Bridge.
Samantha’s mother, Annabel Jones, was a 1960s ‘It’ girl and after her divorce from Reginald Sheffield, married Viscount Astor. Now Lady Annabel Astor, she owns the successful home-furnishing business OKA.
Samantha grew up at Normanby Hall estate, which had been in the family since 1590 (it was later handed over to Lincolnshire Council in lieu of death duties).
She was educated at The School of St Helen & St Katharine in Oxfordshire, and then at Marlborough College in Wiltshire.
She studied fine art at the School of Creative Arts, part of the University of the West of England, with an ambition to be a professional painter.
She has a sister, Emily Sheffield, who is deputy editor of British Vogue.
Samantha bought her first home, in Kensington, when she was 21.
She has a dolphin tattoo on her ankle.
Samantha was friends with David Cameron’s sister, Clare. They first met at a house party when she was 16.
David Cameron and Samantha’s romance blossomed in Tuscany.
David and Samantha were married in 1996 in Ginge Manor in Oxfordshire. They have had four children: Ivan (who died in 2009 from cerebral palsy and severe epilepsy), Nancy, Arthur and Florence Rose Endellion, who is only the second baby to be born to a serving prime minister in over 150 years: former prime minister Tony Blair’s son Leo was born in 2000.
Samantha worked for Smythson of Bond Street (she started there as a window dresser in 1996, becoming creative director in 2006) and won a British Glamour Magazine award for Best Accessory Designer.
When her husband became prime minister in 2010, she stepped down from her role to take a part-time consultancy position.
On 9/11, she was in Manhattan, opening a new Smythson branch.
The Camerons are considered to be members of the Chipping Norton Set – the name given to the group of movers and shakers who have a home in the pretty Cotswolds market town.
Samantha has served as an ambassador for the British Fashion Council and often plays a prominent role in London Fashion Week. She was also a spokeswoman for Shiatzy Chen, a Taiwanese fashion house.
Samantha is widely credited with coining the line: ‘There is such a thing as society, it’s just not the same thing as the state.’ This was used by her husband in 2005 when he was elected Tory leader. However, it was Margaret Thatcher, in her 1996 Keith Joseph Memorial Lecture, who said: ‘To set the record straight, once again, I have never minimised the importance of society, only contested the assumption that society means the state, rather than other people.’
She is a patron for Vitalise, a national charity providing short breaks and respite care for people with physical disabilities and carers.
Her step great-grandmother, Nancy Astor, was the first female MP.
Samantha is Britain’s youngest First Lady in 50 years, entering No 10 at the age of 39. Clarissa Eden, Countess of Avon and wife of Anthony Eden, was only 34 when she entered No 10 in 1955.
According to a 2010 survey, the ideal woman would have Samantha Cameron’s nose.
No 10’s cat, Larry, was appointed ‘Chief Mouser to the Cabinet’, but the Camerons said he was a ‘terrible mouser’. After a reshuffle, Samantha and David decided that the title should be passed to Freya – George Osborne’s cat at No 11.
Most people who advertise for a nanny in the hallowed columns of The Lady classified advertisements are looking for just that. But 60 or so years ago, when the novelist Enid Bagnold advertised for a nanny for three-year-old Annabel, her granddaughter (Samantha Cameron’s mother), she also found the idea for a play. In fact, The Chalk Garden became the most successful play Enid ever wrote and, since it offers two terrific parts for older actresses, it is regularly revived.
There is something of an Enid Bagnold moment right now, as her novel, The Squire, has just been republished by Persephone Books, and my biography of her is newly republished by Faber Finds.
In 1952, Enid was living in Rottingdean, Sussex, and was rather feted as the highly successful author of National Velvet, which had been made into a film with 12-yearold Elizabeth Taylor. The household consisted of her retired husband, Sir Roderick Jones (former head of Reuters), her brilliant son, Timothy, who had lost a leg at Anzio, his beautiful young wife Pandora, and Annabel.
Pandora was only 17 at the time of the wedding in January 1948 and became a mother seven months later. Although her parents, Sir Bede and Lady Clifford, prominent Roman Catholics, were rigidly opposed to the match, Enid decided that such young love was wonderfully roumantic. She adored Pandora, loved all the paraphernalia associated with babies and giving birth (Enid had had four children), and so took charge of the young couple, offering them a home until Timothy was established as a barrister. But even though she saw the newly enlarged family as a sort of ‘private club’, and told Cecil Beaton she felt ‘more Queen-Bee-ish than ever’, she needed domestic help – and, in post-war England, that was not always easy. So she advertised for a ‘Lady’, without specifying any qualifications.
The applications poured in. She said later it felt as if all the originals and castaways of Hove and Brighton had come out of their single rooms to present themselves at her door. But one applicant stood out and was hired. She had ‘a high Roman nose and white hair’ and she lived, according to Enid, in a sort of inner silence in which she tried to enfold the child, never entering conversation if she could help it.
Enid was intrigued by her, especially when one day a judge friend, Sir James Cassels, came to lunch and told the story of a woman with a life sentence and what became of her. The new Lady nanny, at a separate table with Annabel, had her back to the judge, but, nonetheless, showed a strange, almost trembling, interest.
‘She not only turned around, she came right round as a ship turns and you see its bowsprit.’
From this strange action, Enid, with her novelist’s imagination, invented a past for this woman. Had she been someone whom Cassels himself had condemned to death, but who had, on appeal, had her sentence commuted to life imprisonment? Enid was fascinated by the mind of a murderess, not a cold-blooded serial killer, but ‘a woman who committed a murder which could be remotely sympathetic’. So, bizarrely, she retained the murderess-turned-governess working in the Jones household; history does not relate for how long, nor the possible effect she had on her young charge.
But Enid had strong ideas on the nursery routine, including the need for breastfeeding, and so educating the young mind was something she would never entirely relinquish to anyone she employed. She was fascinated by what she called ‘staff’, but always complained, for example, that the housemaids were ‘unsettled’ and worried about the effect this had on family life.
What is clear from the play, revived with enormous success by Michael Grandage at the Donmar Warehouse and seen by David and Samantha Cameron, is that Enid saw herself living in a matriarchy in which men played secondary roles. She believed that motherhood gave her a moral authority denied to men and that the most important decisions in life were taken by women. Since Annabel is currently one of the UK’s most successful businesswomen, running the furniture store OKA that she co-founded, and Samantha was creative director of the Bond Street luxury stationer, Smythson, before she became wife of the British prime minister, it seems that Enid may have succeeded in instilling a sense of more than just moral authority in her offspring.
Anne Sebba is giving the Ninth Persephone Lecture on Enid Bagnold: Writer And Mother at the October Gallery on 28 November. For tickets: 020-7242 9292.
The Squire, by Enid Bagnold, is published by Persephone Books, priced £12. u Enid Bagnold: A Life, by Anne Sebba, is published by Faber Finds, priced £12.80.
But then Britain’s ‘First Lady’, whose family has a fascinating history – we tell the story of her famous great grandmother, author Enid Bagnold who wrote National Velvet, below – is more than used to causing a stir, whether it’s altercations with the Downing Street cat, her role as a fashion ambassador or being wooed by a future Prime Minister…
Samantha Cameron was born on 18 April 1971.
Her middle name is Gwendoline; her maiden name is Sheffield.
Her father, Reginald Adrian Berkeley Sheffield, is descended from King Charles II and Nell Gwyn. She is a distant cousin of Princess Diana.
She is also descended from William Jolliffe, whose company built Waterloo Bridge, Dartmoor Prison and London Bridge.
Samantha’s mother, Annabel Jones, was a 1960s ‘It’ girl and after her divorce from Reginald Sheffield, married Viscount Astor. Now Lady Annabel Astor, she owns the successful home-furnishing business OKA.
Samantha grew up at Normanby Hall estate, which had been in the family since 1590 (it was later handed over to Lincolnshire Council in lieu of death duties).
She was educated at The School of St Helen & St Katharine in Oxfordshire, and then at Marlborough College in Wiltshire.
She studied fine art at the School of Creative Arts, part of the University of the West of England, with an ambition to be a professional painter.
She has a sister, Emily Sheffield, who is deputy editor of British Vogue.
Samantha bought her first home, in Kensington, when she was 21.
She has a dolphin tattoo on her ankle.
Samantha was friends with David Cameron’s sister, Clare. They first met at a house party when she was 16.
David Cameron and Samantha’s romance blossomed in Tuscany.
David and Samantha were married in 1996 in Ginge Manor in Oxfordshire. They have had four children: Ivan (who died in 2009 from cerebral palsy and severe epilepsy), Nancy, Arthur and Florence Rose Endellion, who is only the second baby to be born to a serving prime minister in over 150 years: former prime minister Tony Blair’s son Leo was born in 2000.
Samantha worked for Smythson of Bond Street (she started there as a window dresser in 1996, becoming creative director in 2006) and won a British Glamour Magazine award for Best Accessory Designer.
When her husband became prime minister in 2010, she stepped down from her role to take a part-time consultancy position.
On 9/11, she was in Manhattan, opening a new Smythson branch.
The Camerons are considered to be members of the Chipping Norton Set – the name given to the group of movers and shakers who have a home in the pretty Cotswolds market town.
Samantha has served as an ambassador for the British Fashion Council and often plays a prominent role in London Fashion Week. She was also a spokeswoman for Shiatzy Chen, a Taiwanese fashion house.
Samantha is widely credited with coining the line: ‘There is such a thing as society, it’s just not the same thing as the state.’ This was used by her husband in 2005 when he was elected Tory leader. However, it was Margaret Thatcher, in her 1996 Keith Joseph Memorial Lecture, who said: ‘To set the record straight, once again, I have never minimised the importance of society, only contested the assumption that society means the state, rather than other people.’
She is a patron for Vitalise, a national charity providing short breaks and respite care for people with physical disabilities and carers.
Her step great-grandmother, Nancy Astor, was the first female MP.
Samantha is Britain’s youngest First Lady in 50 years, entering No 10 at the age of 39. Clarissa Eden, Countess of Avon and wife of Anthony Eden, was only 34 when she entered No 10 in 1955.
According to a 2010 survey, the ideal woman would have Samantha Cameron’s nose.
No 10’s cat, Larry, was appointed ‘Chief Mouser to the Cabinet’, but the Camerons said he was a ‘terrible mouser’. After a reshuffle, Samantha and David decided that the title should be passed to Freya – George Osborne’s cat at No 11.
…and the story of a very inspirational Lady
When Samantha Cameron’s great-grandmother, celebrated writer Enid Bagnold, advertised for a Lady nanny, she also found a model for her greatest play, says her biographer Anne SebbaMost people who advertise for a nanny in the hallowed columns of The Lady classified advertisements are looking for just that. But 60 or so years ago, when the novelist Enid Bagnold advertised for a nanny for three-year-old Annabel, her granddaughter (Samantha Cameron’s mother), she also found the idea for a play. In fact, The Chalk Garden became the most successful play Enid ever wrote and, since it offers two terrific parts for older actresses, it is regularly revived.
There is something of an Enid Bagnold moment right now, as her novel, The Squire, has just been republished by Persephone Books, and my biography of her is newly republished by Faber Finds.
In 1952, Enid was living in Rottingdean, Sussex, and was rather feted as the highly successful author of National Velvet, which had been made into a film with 12-yearold Elizabeth Taylor. The household consisted of her retired husband, Sir Roderick Jones (former head of Reuters), her brilliant son, Timothy, who had lost a leg at Anzio, his beautiful young wife Pandora, and Annabel.
Pandora was only 17 at the time of the wedding in January 1948 and became a mother seven months later. Although her parents, Sir Bede and Lady Clifford, prominent Roman Catholics, were rigidly opposed to the match, Enid decided that such young love was wonderfully roumantic. She adored Pandora, loved all the paraphernalia associated with babies and giving birth (Enid had had four children), and so took charge of the young couple, offering them a home until Timothy was established as a barrister. But even though she saw the newly enlarged family as a sort of ‘private club’, and told Cecil Beaton she felt ‘more Queen-Bee-ish than ever’, she needed domestic help – and, in post-war England, that was not always easy. So she advertised for a ‘Lady’, without specifying any qualifications.
The applications poured in. She said later it felt as if all the originals and castaways of Hove and Brighton had come out of their single rooms to present themselves at her door. But one applicant stood out and was hired. She had ‘a high Roman nose and white hair’ and she lived, according to Enid, in a sort of inner silence in which she tried to enfold the child, never entering conversation if she could help it.
Enid was intrigued by her, especially when one day a judge friend, Sir James Cassels, came to lunch and told the story of a woman with a life sentence and what became of her. The new Lady nanny, at a separate table with Annabel, had her back to the judge, but, nonetheless, showed a strange, almost trembling, interest.
‘She not only turned around, she came right round as a ship turns and you see its bowsprit.’
From this strange action, Enid, with her novelist’s imagination, invented a past for this woman. Had she been someone whom Cassels himself had condemned to death, but who had, on appeal, had her sentence commuted to life imprisonment? Enid was fascinated by the mind of a murderess, not a cold-blooded serial killer, but ‘a woman who committed a murder which could be remotely sympathetic’. So, bizarrely, she retained the murderess-turned-governess working in the Jones household; history does not relate for how long, nor the possible effect she had on her young charge.
But Enid had strong ideas on the nursery routine, including the need for breastfeeding, and so educating the young mind was something she would never entirely relinquish to anyone she employed. She was fascinated by what she called ‘staff’, but always complained, for example, that the housemaids were ‘unsettled’ and worried about the effect this had on family life.
What is clear from the play, revived with enormous success by Michael Grandage at the Donmar Warehouse and seen by David and Samantha Cameron, is that Enid saw herself living in a matriarchy in which men played secondary roles. She believed that motherhood gave her a moral authority denied to men and that the most important decisions in life were taken by women. Since Annabel is currently one of the UK’s most successful businesswomen, running the furniture store OKA that she co-founded, and Samantha was creative director of the Bond Street luxury stationer, Smythson, before she became wife of the British prime minister, it seems that Enid may have succeeded in instilling a sense of more than just moral authority in her offspring.
Anne Sebba is giving the Ninth Persephone Lecture on Enid Bagnold: Writer And Mother at the October Gallery on 28 November. For tickets: 020-7242 9292.
The Squire, by Enid Bagnold, is published by Persephone Books, priced £12. u Enid Bagnold: A Life, by Anne Sebba, is published by Faber Finds, priced £12.80.