One woman’s transformation from ingénue chorus girl to wealthy Mayfair hostess. Dorothy Hartman, known to her intimates as ‘Dodo’, a glamorous society hostess and a successful businesswoman, had a hidden past. Her ‘missing’ earlier life had been shrouded in mystery; a deceit she deliberately cultivated. The love child of a Cockney music hall artiste, born in poverty during the Victorian Fin de Siècle, Dodo emerged as an attractive West End chorus girl, compelled to marry an army officer twice her age during the First World War. Her aristocratic second husband disinherited her on his death-bed, following a string of affairs. Dodo’s next marriage secured a partnership in Lendrum & Hartman, the most prestigious transatlantic car dealership in London, patronised by royalty – including the Princes of Wales and Wallis Simpson. Using her theatrical charm Dodo seamlessly moved amongst fashionable society becoming a regular passenger to America during the golden age of sea travel, a renowned Mayfair hostess whose guests were drawn from the theatrical world such as Charlie Chaplin, Frances Day and Valerie Hobson, including business and political circles like Jack Profumo. She rode with the Beaufort hunt, which included Britain’s top wartime spymaster. Maud?Coleno’s Daughter contains largely unpublished material about a once well-known, now forgotten Mayfair hostess, who succeeded in a man’s world despite disadvantage of birth. It throws another perspective on little-known aspects of some influential British and American business people involved in the smoke and mirrors world of pre-war political espionage, set against country house balls and high society. The book will appeal to fans of biographies and ‘rags to riches’ stories.
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Maud Coleno's Daughter - is the result of a chance piece of family research. Born during the Second World War in Gwaunfarren House Merthyr Tydfil . Following his solitary childhood accompanying his mother, a war-widowed cook serving in a succession of country houses, allowed him to contrast adult society from both sides of the green baize door. Leading to an interest in social and historical exploration, the research led to the discovery of Maud Coleno's actual daughter -the 'lost child', in South Africa. see photo.
A Welsh childhood, fed his love of rugby, and a life-long fascination with travel, history and the sea. After school, taking a season as a barman at Butlins, and hitch-hiking through Europe, he joined the illustrious travel firm of Thomas Cook in London. The insatiable demands of the firm's rugby club 'apres game' life, led to moonlighting at Norman Balon's Coach & Horses pub in Bohemian Soho. Served briefly in the Royal Naval Reserve. His numerous travel clients ranged from ex war-time SOE agents to artists, authors and MP's, to spies, journalists and the clergy - including executives from business and commerce, some of whom were lampooned in 'Private Eye'. He is widely travelled, the family home shared with dogs was in Sussex for many years, now lives and writes in Cornwall.
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