Quail in Aspic. The Life Story of Count Charles Korsetz as tape recorded by Cecil Beaton

Cecil Beaton.

Weidenfeld and Nicholson. London. 1962. First edition. Hardback, octavo; purple cloth-bound boards, dust jacket. 165 pages. 22 hors texte black and white photographic plates. English. 225 x 145mm. 0.4kg. . Near fine, in near fine dust jacket; slight shelf wear, li not price-clipped; browning to page edges, no inscriptions.

‘Hitherto, Count Charles Korsetz has never written anything except cheques; but here is his own entrancing account of the great days at Korsetz Castle, and of the parties and partis of a vanished Europe where he moved with aplomb in a world of fantastic wealth and extraordinary breeding.’
 
Cecil Beaton's spoof memoir of an Eastern-European aristocrat, written in a similar vein to My Royal Past. The Count’s narrative tells of the merry-go-round of European society and travel, broken up by the two World Wars. Anecdotes are populated by a thinly disguised cast of social extras, such as Mr W. Somerset W. Morn and Lady Coalfax. The text is complemented by spoof photographs. The American gossip columnist and author, Elsa Maxwell gamely plays the part of the Count, masquerading in a series of wigs and bald-caps. Other parts are modelled by Mae Murray, Sandra Douglas-Home, Charmain Montagu Douglas Scott, Perlita Neilson and Martita Hunt.  The cover of the dust jacket features a portrait by ‘the fashionable painter Beatknik’.