TA K I
BOOK REVIEW: A MOMENT IN TIME
Lord and Lady Lucan during the 1960s. Lord Lucan allegedly murdered their children’s nanny,
A MOMENT IN TIME reminded me of English women expatriates I met in the South of France more than 50 years ago. They were very proud of being British, never tired of telling us they were British, were rather broke, and talked down to average people. They spoke about Colonel so-and-so, or Lord and Lady so-and-so, some of whom were distantly related to them, or perhaps were just acquaintances. It also reminded me of characters in Separate Tables, Terence Rattigan’s brilliant play about snobby 70 QUEST
souls living out their rather desperate lives in a grubby seaside hotel back in the ’50s. Except that poor old now-dead-byher-own-hand Veronica Lucan does not in any way or form write like the great Sir Terence. She goes into detail about her everyday disasters in a very tiresome, methodical manner, like a benevolent Eichmann, listing all the bad things that have happened to her, and I must admit there have been many. She began life by being rather plain and having a rather beautiful sister,
Christina Shand Kydd, wife of Bill Shand Kydd, a hero of mine for his death-defying courage while on a horse, and for his bravery once reduced to being unable to move anything except his eyes following a riding accident. Veronica Lucan is not nice about her sister or her brotherin-law. The reason she gives is that the Shand-Kydds alienated her three chil-
GETTY
Sandra Rivett (insert), in 1974. He has been missing since.