THIS is a gossip-column-style sprint through Britain's upper-crust bedchambers where not all the illicit romps are as distant as the Duke of Buckingham's 17th century dalliance with the Countess of Shrewsbury, whom he installed in his home under the nose of his wife.

Profumo and Christine Keeler are here, and, batting (or whatever) for our present century, so is Lady Victoria Hervey who, we are typically told, "has kept the gossip columns happy by dating a string of minor celebrities (not "celebs", give thanks for small mercies) including the lantern-jawed racing driver David Coulthard."

Noting her sister Isabella's participation in Celebrity Love Island, Douglas-Home, nephew of former Prime Minister Sir Alec Douglas-Home, writes: "Her fellow contestants included the ubiquitous Miss Loos and Abi Titmuss, the glamour girl and former lover of the disgraced Blue Peter host John Leslie."

That gives you the flavour.