One person will not be happy to see a classic Twenties scandal resurfacing, with the publication of The Virgin’s Baby by Bevis Hillier. Step forward the Hon Johnnie Russell, 63, who famously claimed his father’s title when the third Lord Ampthill died in 1973.
The third Baron’s first wife Christabel claimed she had never had sex with her husband and that their son Geoffrey Russell, who inherited the title, was therefore illegitimate.
As Geoffrey’s younger half-brother, Johnnie, the son of John Hugo Ampthill by his third wife, threw his hat in the ring, though he eventually lost the Seventies court case.
It was claimed that Christabel was still a virgin and Geoffrey must have been conceived with the aid of a sponge. Geoffrey, who died in 2011, was teased all his life about this.
“Someone suggested that I should call the book Emission Impossible,” says Hillier.
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