Siân Evans - Mrs Ronnie of Polesden Lacy

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Mrs Ronnie of Polesden Lacey was a 'Social Napoleon', an ambitious heiress who used her inherited wealth to create beautiful houses to attract the influential, and a mercurial philanthropist with some controversial political beliefs.

King Edward VII, who commended her 'positive genius for hospitality', appreciated her discretion in his affair with her friend Alice Keppel. Mrs Ronnie intrigued with King George V and Queen Mary, and advanced the courtship of 'Bertie and Elizabeth' who honeymooned at her luxurious country house, Polesden Lacey in Surrey. She disapproved of the Prince of Wales and had ringside view of the Abdication Crisis, becoming a valued supported of the new King and Queen.

An independent and strong-minded woman, Mrs Ronnie was a good friend but a feared enemy and the scourge of rival hostesses' drawing rooms. She was a curious and inveterate traveller, touring the world in pursuit of the most powerful people of the age, bringing her into contact with Winston Churchill, Mussolini and Hitler and provoking strong and conflicting reactions amongst her contemporaries Cecil Beaton, Harold Nicolson and Osbert Sitwell.

Mrs Ronnie was a complex and contradictory character and her astonishing rise from a straitened and obscure childhood to the position of 'favoured aunt' to the British Royal Family is a genuine 'rags to riches' tale

Cultural historian San Evans previously worked for the National Trust, the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Design Museum. She is the author of Ghosts: Mysterious Tales from the National Trust, The Manor Reborn, Pattern Design and Life Below Stairs, all published by the National Trust.

Front jacket image: portrait of Mrs 'Ronnie' Greville painted in 1891 by Carolus-Duran.

Mrs Ronnie of Polesden Lacey was a shrewd social climber, an ardent collector of royalty, a rigorous businesswoman, an inveterate traveller and a mercurial philanthropist with some controversial political beliefs. She was born Margaret Helen Anderson in 1863, ostensibly the only child of two working-class Scots transplanted to London. However, her lowly origins concealed a fascinating secret, and she used her charm and cunning, not to mention the fortune left to her by the man thought to be her stepfather, to become a close friend of many members of the British Royal Family, and of kings, queens, maharajahs and millionaires from all over the world.

Margaret went by a number of names throughout her life: to her intimate friends she was Maggie or Aunt Maggie; she liked being known to Edwardian society as Mrs Ronnie; and, although she rarely used the title, formally she was known as Dame Margaret Greville, having been awarded the DBE in 1922. In fact, her multiple names are an indication of her frequent metamorphoses. Tough and ambitious, she reinvented herself as it suited her, covering her tracks, and destroying any evidence that might not show her in a good light. Plucked from obscurity by her mothers late marriage, she was quick to leave the Edinburgh lodging house behind; as soon as she was safely married in 1891 to the affable Ronnie Greville, Maggie started to record the edited highlights of her new life in press clippings, now stored in albums in her beautiful country house, Polesden Lacey. Once she had inherited a fortune in her own right, and was widowed, childless and alone at 50 years old, she used her wealth and independence to create a social circle of the powerful and influential, inviting them to her two magnificent houses, where luxury was the watchword.

Proximity to royalty, starting with Edward VII, became a habit that was hard to break, and her long life encompassed friendships with King George V and Queen Mary, and King George VI and Queen Elizabeth. Her only failure in this field was with the Prince of Wales, the future Edward VIII, of whom she held a low opinion; the feeling was mutual. Needless to say, she was much involved in the Abdication Crisis.

She travelled extensively and always gravitated to the most powerful and influential people of the age, which brought her into contact with Mussolini and Hitler. She also sponsored and supported people of far-sighted intelligence and ability, from inventors such as Marconi and scientists like Professor Lindemann, to major politicians like Sir John Simon and Winston Churchill.

She was revered and feared in equal measure, especially by the other society hostesses of the age; adroit at the astute put-down, her voice, with its gentle Edinburgh accent, was described by Prime Minister Balfour as a sort of honeyed poison, and she enjoyed getting her retaliation in first. She courted the press, using the media to present herself in the best possible light, but she was also aware that her post-mortem reputation would be damaged by her involvement with the momentous political developments of the 1930s, especially her early misplaced enthusiasm for the Third Reich. Consequently, she left instructions that her private papers should be destroyed by her faithful Head Steward, Francis Bole, who had been loyal to her for four decades.

However, she was not able to suppress all information about her life, much of which was led in a highly public manner and consequently reported in papers, magazines and photographs of her era. Stories about her were also recorded in the diaries, letters and memoirs of her contemporaries, many of them unfavourable. Though she tried to manipulate her own public image, it has been possible to fill the gaps with help and advice from many people who have been extremely generous with their knowledge.

Mrs Ronnie provoked strong and conflicting reactions amongst her contemporaries. Cecil Beaton, in 1948, described her as a galumphing, greedy, snobbish old toad who watered at her chops at the sight of royalty and the Prince of Waless set, and did nothing for anybody except the rich. Picture dealer and art adviser Colin Agnew said of her she was a true friend, but a terrible enemy. But Osbert Sitwell, who knew her for nearly 30 years, stated when she died, a great number of men and women of a generation younger than herself, as well as her own contemporaries, have lost an irreplaceable friend.

Mrs Ronnie schemed and manipulated to the very end of her life. She changed her will, going back on an offer she had made to King George V in 1914, to leave Polesden Lacey to his son Bertie, later King George VI. Instead she left it to the National Trust, along with a massive bequest and almost all the contents in memory of her beloved father, William McEwan, with the desire that the house and grounds should be opened to the public. As an impressive consolation prize, however, she left more than 60 pieces of exquisite world-class jewellery to Queen Elizabeth, and these gems are still worn at formal events by members of the Royal Family.

Mrs Ronnies life began in obscurity in 1863 as a low-caste Victorian in the age of Empire. When it ended, in 1942, she was the best friend of the Queen and King, stubbornly sitting out the Blitz in the very heart of the beleaguered capital city, as Britain fought for its very survival at the height of the Second World War. This is a story of driving ambition; Margaret Greville was certainly no saint and she made some unwise judgements, but she was a complex and fascinating woman who, through her own determination and social mobility, obtained a front-row seat at many of the most momentous events of her era.