EPILOGUE

Article in SCOOP Magazine:

This Month’s Exclusive!

Splendour in Buckinghamshire…Patrician Eighteenth-century Balfour Manor…Oscar Balfour’s Brilliant Birthday Bash!

Coverage: Rainbow Beckwith Photographs: Bobby Berstein

Greetings, greetings, dear readers! Kisses, kisses—both cheeks—hugs, hugs.

What a scoop I have for you this month, so sit back with a cuppa and lap it all up.

The Balfour Black Tie Birthday Extravaganza. Engraved invitations (I kept mine) requested the ladies wear either silver, white or gold. Bellissimo! I can report everyone rose splendidly to the occasion. As we were to find out later, the particular palette was to complement the exquisite flower arrangements and the fantastic interior and exterior decorations.

Sumptuous buffet in the historic banqueting hall, enough vintage champers to top up the Thames, great music, romantic strolls in the manor’s magnificent gardens, dancing until dawn. Get the picture?

Anyone who is anyone was there. The blue-bloods, the upper crust, the celebrated, the movie stars and current celebs, plus a goodly sprinkle of the gilded international set. Glad it’s Oscar and not me footing the bill.

But enough of that! I know what you really want to hear. So here it is, first-hand.

Any of you who earlier in the year were set abuzz by cruel rumours that our very own dazzling Balfours were jinxed should have been so lucky as to receive a priceless invitation. When I received mine, I kid you not, I fell to my knees.

Power host, Oscar, was at his triumphant best, his distinguished face aglow with pleasure and family pride.

You will know from photographs of your Rainbow covering other big social events what a passion I have for fashion, so naturally I went all out on my gown. Glittering gold lace. But no way could I rival the tremendous glamour of the Beautiful Balfour Girls.

What an orchestration was their entry! Everyone gasped and fell about in genuine admiration. Whatever mastermind party planner thought it up is now assured of a full book from hosts and hostesses dead set to impress.

Oscar’s beautiful daughters—Olivia, Bella, Zoe, Annie, Sophie, Kat, Emily and Mia; could any father be so blessed? —came on with such dazzle and pizzazz that the two hundred guests gathered in the magnificent black-and-white marble-paved entrance hall burst into spontaneous applause.

Watching proudly was Oscar Balfour with his companion of the evening, the marvellously chic Lady Primrose Howard, while his daughters—“jewels in his crown, ” as he later said in a wonderfully witty speech—commenced their spellbinding descent of the manor’s gloriously romantic grand staircase.

Utterly, utterly gorgeous, dear readers! It should be a tradition.

Olivia, as the eldest, led off. Talk about goddess worship! She wore a gleaming strapless column of white satin embroidered with crystals, pearls and silver thread—a gown so stunning you could pine away and die for it, that’s if you could ever manage such a willowy figure!

Following Olivia came her fraternal twin, our fashion icon, Bella, in an amazing asymmetrical gown featuring wide bands of silver and gold silk.

Must tell you before I report another word, I later witnessed a very touching moment between the sisters, lovely to see, that puts paid to any talk of an estrangement. Take it from me, I’m here to derail it. I’ve never seen two more devoted sisters. And why not? They’re twins. For the first time, I noted they’re actually very much alike.

Behind the twins, came Kat, Mia and Zoe, all three positively blooming. Pick up any clues, girls? Watch this space.

Sophie and Annie in lovely, lovely extravagant gowns were next in line to make their graceful descent.

Little Oliver also made a fleeting appearance, waving happily at the gathering before being promptly escorted off to bed.

And for the grand finale! Emily, soon to become Princess of the Principality of Santosa. Real live royalty no less. Could anything be more thrilling than a fairy-tale end?

But the real show-stopper of a truly fantastic evening was, as the sisters started their celebratory descent, accompanied by a fanfare of wonderfully sweeping music, they were joined, in turn, from the opposite side of the fabulous art-hung gallery by their strikingly handsome, elegantly attired partners, seemingly from all over the globe!

Let me be the first to tell you—and don’t you forget it—we can expect lots of wedding bells to ring out in the near future, so now is the time to renew your subscription to your favourite magazine.

To wave upon wave of delighted applause the Beautiful Balfour Girls, with their deliciously exciting Significant Others, moved down the stairs to join the throng for a round of introductions, Oscar right in the middle of it, loving every moment, his daughters all lit from within with the joy of reunion and their personal happiness that couldn’t have been more on show.

This was one of those evenings, dear readers, that forever remains in the memory. I had the greatest time, as did all of Oscar Balfour’s honoured guests.

Hot, hot news coming straight off the press: the upcoming engagement of the beautiful Olivia to her partner of the evening, Australian cattle baron and business entrepreneur Clint McAlpine. There’s some distant family connection, I understand. Olivia recently returned from an extended stay at Clint’s vast outback desert kingdom.

Wow!

At this stage of my reporting life, I think it’s fair to say I’ve never enjoyed a birthday bash more. I’m sure all of us who were there will long cherish the memory.

Until you hear from me again, keeping you, dearest readers, fully in the picture of what goes on at the best places…

Love and XXXXs,

Rainbow Beckwith

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