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3 unusual facts about Oliver Messel


Les Jolies Eaux

The main house, completed in 1972, was designed by the princess's uncle-in-law Oliver Messel in the neo-Georgian-style.

Oliver Messel

Messel was born in London, the second son of Lieutenant-Colonel Leonard Messel and Maud, the only daughter of Linley Sambourne, the eminent illustrator and contributor to Punch magazine.

Radclyffe Hall

The British composer and bon-vivant Gerald Tyrwhitt-Wilson, 14th Baron Berners, wrote a roman à clef girls' school story entitled The Girls of Radcliff Hall, in which he depicts himself and his circle of friends, including Cecil Beaton and Oliver Messel, as lesbian schoolgirls at a school named "Radcliff Hall".



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