Les Parents Terribles

‘Have you ever seen her in concert – I mean live?’ Antonia asked.

‘As a matter of fact, we have,’ Payne said. ‘At the Royal Albert Hall. Aunt Nellie took us. My sister and me. Corinne Coreille’s first concert in England. She gave two concerts, I think?’ He turned to his aunt.

‘Goodness, yes… That was ages ago.’ Lady Grylls spoke distractedly. ‘Ages ago…’

‘Darling, is anything the matter?’

‘Why can’t one revisit the past, the way one does a foreign country? Of course I remember Corinne’s concert.’ Lady Grylls sat up. ‘Sorry – lost in a brown study… I remember it vividly. What d’you want to know about it?’

‘I believe the French ambassador was in the audience or did I dream it?’

‘No, you did not dream it. He was. Madame de Gaulle was there too, with Lady Soames, the wife of our ambassador in Paris.’ Lady Grylls flicked cigarette ash recklessly on to the carpet. ‘Corinne was big in France in the late ’60s. Everybody was talking of la nouvelle Piaf. Corinne was said to be a particular favourite of General de Gaulle. Her first English concert was a glittering gala devised to revive the flagging Entente Cordiale. It has always been in trouble, hasn’t it? There were other French singers – Maurice Chevalier, no less. Sacha Distel. On the English side there was Vera Lynn and – what was the name of the chap who sang about wanting to be released?’

‘Engelbert Humperdinck.’

‘Oh yes. Ghastly name. He also wrote operas, didn’t he? No, that was the other one.’

‘It must have been 1969… It was 5th May. I was on leave from Sandhurst.’

Antonia smiled. ‘You remember the exact date? Did you find Corinne that attractive then?’