EDEN CONFIDENTIAL: How the wealthy Sitwell family lost out on the lucrative literary legacy of a Proms favourite
They amassed great wealth from iron and coal, enabling them to build a Gothic pile, Renishaw Hall, in Derbyshire, and later to acquire a castle, the magnificent Montegufoni, in Tuscany. But in recent years the fortune of the Sitwell family has been diminished, prompting the sale both of Montegufoni and, more recently, 11-bedroom Weston Hall, Northamptonshire, a secondary property which had been in the family for 300 years.
Now I can disclose that a handy stream of cash – with the potential to replenish the family coffers – remains tantalisingly out of the Sitwells’ reach, as they were painfully reminded last Friday when Belshazzar’s Feast was performed at the Proms.
Composed by William Walton, the piece has words by poet and writer Osbert Sitwell, who declared ‘listening to the sound of his own voice’ to be one of his recreations and who, with his sister Edith and brother Sacheverell, astounded London society in the 1920s and 1930s by championing the avant-garde – and by their shameless self-promotion.
‘Every time Belshazzar’s Feast is performed, it generates royalties for Osbert’s literary estate – and it’s been performed five times at the Proms alone in the past 11 years,’ a family friend tells me.
But, though the royalties are duly paid, not a penny reaches the Sitwells, neither Osbert’s great-niece Alexandra, who lives at Renishaw, or her cousins, Sir George Sitwell and his younger brother, food writer William – or indeed to anyone else, whether a member of the family or not.
A handy stream of cash – with the potential to replenish the family coffers – remains tantalisingly out of the Sitwells’ reach, as they were painfully reminded last Friday when Belshazzar’s Feast was performed at the Proms (File image)
This, I can disclose, is a consequence of the impenetrability of Italian law – and the unforeseen consequences of Osbert’s will. In it, he bequeathed his literary estate to Maltese-born Frank Magro, whom he had initially hired as his nurse but who subsequently became his lover.
‘The family were horrified that Osbert, who died in 1969, had made Frank his beneficiary and literary executor,’ explains the family friend.
Magro lived on for more than 40 years. But since his death – ‘about a decade ago’ – matters have deteriorated dramatically. ‘Frank didn’t leave a will and left no family,’ adds the friend, explaining that the ‘complexities of the Italian legal system’ mean that it is effectively impossible for the family – or anyone else – to reclaim Osbert’s royalties.
The agents handling Osbert’s literary estate, David Higham Associates, declines to comment. ‘It doesn’t really matter to them. They can deduct their percentage and dump the rest in a bank account where it rots away, earning no interest and out of reach to everyone.’
Oppenheimer star Florence is a Barbie girl at heart!
She has become one of Hollywood’s most coveted actresses, but Florence Pugh preferred to go incognito as she headed back to her old stomping ground of Oxfordshire for the Wilderness Festival.
The Oxford restaurateur’s daughter, 27, who stars in acclaimed film Oppenheimer, hid beneath a pink fluffy hat and blue heart-shaped glasses.
She wore a neon-lime green sheer jumpsuit with a bikini that appeared to be inspired by rival box-office hit Barbie as she posed with a pal.
Known as ‘Poshstock’, Wilderness is held on Lord Rotherwick’s Cornbury Park estate and is a favourite of David and Samantha Cameron.
This year, Boris Johnson’s wife, Carrie, was among the revellers.
She has become one of Hollywood’s most coveted actresses, but Florence Pugh (pictured) preferred to go incognito as she headed back to her old stomping ground of Oxfordshire for the Wilderness Festival
The Oxford restaurateur’s daughter, 27, who stars in acclaimed film Oppenheimer, hid beneath a pink fluffy hat and blue heart-shaped glasses
She wore a neon-lime green sheer jumpsuit with a bikini that appeared to be inspired by rival box-office hit Barbie as she posed with a pal
Husky broadcaster Mariella Frostrup and her family enjoy such a quintessentially middle-class lifestyle that one of her two children sent her a handmade Mothering Sunday card which read: ‘Mummy I love you more than avocados.’
But Frostrup says she grew up in Ireland ‘knowing the smell of poverty’. Recalling an ‘awful memory’ of ‘when we really had run out of food’, she tells Ruthie’s Table 4 podcast: ‘My brother, the kindest man you’ll meet, was trying to make light of the fact there was nothing in the cupboard.
‘He was, like, ‘Look, look, I’ve got spaghetti, and I’ve got golden syrup. It’ll be delicious’.
‘He made it for us with the golden syrup — it was one of the most disgusting combinations I’ve ever come across.’
Angela Rippon’s entering Strictly Come Dancing, at the age of 78, appears to have left her fellow former BBC newsreader Jan Leeming feeling wistful.
Asked if she would ever consider going on the Saturday night hit show, Leeming, 81, says: ‘Not now. Some years ago I met on the beach a Strictly producer who said I was ”the one who got away”. I don’t know how, as I was never asked and would have accepted.’
Angela Rippon (left) and Amanda Abbington (right) were announced as members of Strictly Come Dancing 2023 on the same episode of The One Show
His talent for mimicry has earned him adoration, but Rory Bremner draws the line at one impersonation — by someone trying to pass off an Instagram account as his own.
Denouncing it as ‘a scam’, Bremner points out that a dot appears in the title of the bogus account, whereas his own doesn’t have one. He also jokes that he has ‘much better tattoos’ than those displayed in photos which appear on the fake account.
But that’s the limit of his humour. ‘Please report and block,’ he asks his followers.
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