The Paget girls sound like something out of a fairytale. Born to a well-to-do gentry family in 1916, the identical twins were stunningly beautiful, with pale skin and goldspun hair and the sort of eyes that people really did describe as “sparkling”.
Norman Parkinson, the society photographer, pestered them to pose. Couturiers competed to dress them. Naturally gregarious — although they preferred the word “friendable” — the Pagets crossed paths with all the mid-century cultural superstars. Mamaine, the younger, had love affairs with the writers Arthur Koestler and Albert Camus, while Celia was entangled with the philosopher AJ Ayer, while managing to dodge George Orwell. Sartre deeply admired them, although he found it hard to tell them apart.
