LENOX, Mass. — Hugo Vickers, biographer, lecturer, broadcaster and an acknowledged expert on the royal family, will recount Gladys Deacon who followed Consuelo Vanderbilt as wife of the 9th Duke of Marlborough.

 

His presentation on Sunday, March 5 at 3:30 pm will be followed by a champagne tea at Ventfort Hall. 

 

According to a press release, Vickers knew Deacon for two years at the end of her life. She was 94 and he was 23.

 

This lecture will tell the dramatic story of Gladys from her heyday in Paris, through her Bohemian years, to the trials of Blenheim, and then her long seclusion as a recluse and her 15 years confined to a psychiatric hospital.  

 

Vickers' first book was about her, Gladys Deacon, Duchess of Marlborough (1881-1977), in whom he became interested when he was 16 years old.   When he was 23, he found the Duchess in the psychogeriatric ward of a mental hospital and talked to her for two years until her death at the age of 96.  He researched in Europe and America and published "Gladys, Duchess of Marlborough" in 1979.  Because there was considerably more material available 40 years on, he revised this book for a new edition, published in 2020, as The Sphinx (and paperback in 2021)..

 

Vickers has covered events from the first wedding of the Prince of Wales, the funerals of Diana, the Queen Mother and Prince Philip, and many royal weddings. 

 

Tickets are $40. Reservations are required as seats are limited. Walk-ins accommodated as space allows. Masks are required. For reservations book online at https://gildedage.org/events/ or call at (413) 637-3206. Please note that all tickets are nonrefundable and non-exchangeable. The historical mansion is located at 104 Walker Street in Lenox.