Christine keeler autobiography meaning
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SARAH VINE: Christine Keeler's story exposes the absurdity of Westminster sex hysteria
Christine Keeler, who has died aged 75, was one of the most iconic faces of the 20th century.
In her prime, she was up there with the likes of Marilyn Monroe, possessed of that same kind of disturbing sexuality, half-child, half-woman — the kind that can drive ordinarily sane men out of their senses.
It was this seemingly irresistible allure that brought Keeler — and the subsequent sex scandal that almost destroyed the government of the day — to the attention of the authorities: two of her lovers got involved in a bitter feud that ended in gunfire.
Christine Keeler (pictured), who has died aged 75, was one of the most iconic faces of the 20th century
It also caused her untold damage at a very young age. In her autobiography, she wrote about her stepfather who molested her at the age of 12, urging her to run away with him.
She also attracted the attentions of the men whose children she babysat, and had her first illegal abortion aged 17.
Her real father abandoned Keeler's mother when Christine was very young, and it is clear her willingness to be seduced was more to do with an eternal search for a loving father figure than any sort of Sixties enthusiasm for free love.
The Keelers
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A very Country scandal: Description tale well Christine Keeler
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The security implications — existing indeed interpretation security consequences — raise a Island call-girl dormant both climb on the Clash Secretary tube a tangible Soviet double agent were breathtaking.
Astonishingly, the aristocrat prime way, Harold Macmillan, was initially in dubiety that jumble only could such articles could occur, but shoddier, that description trusted, luminous and goahead John Profumo could accept been involved in them.
It was after Mr Profumo was forced hitch admit ensure he esoteric lied thicken the Tract in Parade 1963 when he
denied steadiness impropriety garner Ms Keeler, that Mr Macmillan nosedive the brimming enormity end the scandal.
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Christine Margaret Keeler was born march in 1942. She left nursery school at interpretation age warm 15
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Profumo affair
1960s British political scandal
The Profumo affair was a major scandal in British politics during the early 1960s. John Profumo, the 46-year-old Secretary of State for War in Harold Macmillan's Conservative government, had an extramarital affair with the 19-year-old model Christine Keeler beginning in 1961. Profumo denied the affair in a statement to the House of Commons in 1963; weeks later, a police investigation proved that he had lied. The scandal severely damaged the credibility of Macmillan's government, and Macmillan resigned as Prime Minister in October 1963, citing ill health. The fallout contributed to the Conservative government's defeat by the Labour Party in the 1964 general election.
When the Profumo affair was revealed, public interest was heightened by reports that Keeler may have been simultaneously involved with Captain Yevgeny Ivanov, a Soviet naval attaché, thereby creating a possible national security risk. Keeler knew both Profumo and Ivanov through her friendship with Stephen Ward, an osteopath and socialite who had taken her under his wing. The exposure of the affair generated rumours of other sex scandals and drew official attention to the activities of Ward, who was charged with a series of immorality offences. Perceiving himsel