Three Times a Countess: The Extraordinary Life and Times of Raine Spencer

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Perceptively examines the life of one of the twentieth century's original tough, ambitious women -- Lindy Woodhead Ongoing Covid restrictions, reduced air and freight capacity, high volumes and winter weather conditions are all impacting transportation and local delivery across the globe. This book is a vindication, both of Raine herself and of a type of person - of woman - whom it became uncool to value * TLS * Then one day she found herself on a historic buildings committee with Johnnie Spencer, heir to Althorp. Before he met Raine, Johnnie was rumoured to be “the gloomiest man in London”. His wife Frances had bolted and he couldn’t get over it. But Raine made it her business to cheer him up. “Raine loved men and she loved sex,” according to a friend, and they were always stopping the car in lay-bys. On one occasion, they gave a lift to a friend but then popped into a budget hotel by a filling station, and left the friend waiting with the chauffeur in the Rolls. They married in 1976.

When Lady Diana Spencer was 15, she and her siblings discovered their father had secretly married the woman they called Acid Raine by reading it in the Daily Express. He hadn’t dared to tell them. A furious Diana was sent in “to sort him out”, a confrontation that ended up, according to the princess, with her slapping him round the face.And suddenly she was friends with Princess Diana. Diana made the first move, inviting her to lunch, and soon they were phoning each other every day and calling each other “darling”. Raine was one of the first people to learn of Diana’s death. The BBC announced that Dodi Al Fayed had been killed in the Paris car crash, but Diana was in hospital with minor injuries. Michael Cole, who worked for Mohammed Al Fayed, had been frantically phoning the Salpetriere Hospital to ask for news but the hospital refused to tell him anything because he wasn’t family. Then he remembered that his good friend Raine was family, and got her to ring the hospital, who told her Diana was dead. Gaudoin's book is revealing and hugely entertaining. Highly recommended. * Daily Mail, *Royal Books of the Year* * Tina Gaudoin sets out to rehabilitate Raine as a far more nuanced woman, an insouciant, sexy survivor uncredited for her many achievements . . . A colourful life. * The Times * Raine Spencer leaving The Connaught hotel after lunch with Diana, Princess of Wales in 1997 Antony Jones/Getty Images

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