Cliveden is a National Trust house once owned by the Astors, which is very beautiful, though infamous for the Profumo scandal! During the 1963 Profumo trial, when the lawyer asked Mandy Rice-Davies whether she was aware that Lord Astor had denied having an affair with her, she replied "Well he would, wouldn't he?"  Each year in the nineties there was a classical concert in the Italian gardens. Hundreds of people attended the Festival and picnicked, some with candelabras on long white-clothed tables for fun, wearing evening dress, eating smoked salmon and sipping champagne.  This large oil painting captures one of those Festival summer evenings, as old friends greet each other. It is Cliveden that I imagine in my novel, Stealing Venus.