And that I was born a fortnight later,’1 Sonia Keppel wrote of her birth. With the Victorian age all but over, Britain was preparing for a new, more frivolous era: ‘The sky was clearing fast. From decorous grey it was becoming rather a blatant blue.’ The reign of Edward VII would be shoehorned into the years between two wars – the Boer War, which ended as Edward was crowned in 1902, and World War One, which loomed large on the horizon in the years following his death in 1910. And it would be, in Sonia’s recollection at least, a brief interlude during which England would throw off the heavy garb of the previous century. Edwardian England wore its parental responsibilities with a lightness, a sense of fun, which had rarely been present before. And, for the first time, those who had the luxury of spare time began to use it – and to talk about using it – to nurture and enjoy their children. Sonia’s childhood was far from typical – she was born into a society family; I was her mother, the King’s lover and her sister, Violet, the future lover of Vita Sackville-West.
