The Dazzling Paget Sisters: The English Twins Who Captivated Literary Europe

After Celia Goodman née Paget died in 2002, her daughter Ariane Bankes, inherited a battered trunk stuffed with letters and diaries that belonged to Celia and her identical twin sister, Mamaine. This correspondence charted two remarkable lives spent amongst a dazzling cast of characters who were at the heart of their age, including Arthur Koestler, Albert Camus, Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, and George Orwell.

Throughout a secluded childhood in the country with their widowed father, boarding school, and Swiss finishing school, the twins remained inseparable. As debutantes, they took 1930s London by storm, rejecting conventional suitors in favor of life together amongst the city’s bohemian intelligentsia. During the war and after, they were at the side of Europe’s foremost intellectuals—as coworkers, close friends, and lovers.

This captivating memoir is an intimate portrait of a lost age and the male thinkers who dominated it, as seen through women’s eyes. Above all, it’s the tale of two devoted sisters, remarkable women both.

“Taking us from the high bohemia of 1930s London to the European intellectual scene of the 1940s and 1950s, Ariane Bankes weaves a story as spirited and alluring as the Paget sisters at its center.”

—Antonia Fraser

“This evocative account of the author’s mother and aunt – identical sisters who stole the hearts of London’s 1930s intelligentsia – captures their closeness and lust for life . . . The Paget twins were undoubtedly beautiful, spirited and clever. As debs, they were photographed by Madame Yevonde for Tatler; their circle included Laurie Lee, Decca Mitford and Simone de Beauvoir. But their principal fascination for the modern reader lies not with their own achievements, but with their private lives . . . This [is a] rather delicious and sympathetic book . . . Their appetites, their energy, the pleasure they take in absolutely everything: such things are a tonic, the perfect antidote to a certain kind of 21st century puritanism.”

—Rachel Cooke, The Guardian

“A sophisticated, cultured cast of writers and thinkers are convincingly woven together through the fascination of the Paget twins, who are the magnetic center of the story . . . The Dazzling Paget Sisters conjures a treasure trove of characters who were at the heart of their age.”

—Virginia Nicholson

“Ariane Bankes has painted a wonderfully rich and lovingly nuanced portrait of her mother and aunt, devoted twins, whose lives and loves traversed the intellectual currents and crises of mid-twentieth century Europe”

—Rupert Christiansen

“A fascinating slice of social history seen through the lives of two dynamic, glamorous sisters. The Dazzling Paget Sisters also provides intriguing revelations about some of the great thinkers of the mid-twentieth century – George Orwell, Arthur Koestler, and Albert Camus – who were dazzled by the Paget twins. Hugely enjoyable.”

—Julia Parry

“The Dazzling Paget Sisters illuminates an intoxicating, almost lost world as never before, but its emotional heartbeat lies in the indissoluble trajectory of sibling love running through the lives of the magnetic Paget twins.”

—Juliet Nicolson

Ariane Bankes had a long career in publishing, including at John Murray and V&A Publishing, before becoming a writer, critic and curator. She is President of Koestler Arts and runs two UK-based biography prizes. She divides her time between London and Norfolk. 

The Dazzling Paget Sisters: The English Twins Who Captivated Literary Europe • Paperback ISBN: 9781961341357

Apr 29, 2025 • McNALLY EDITIONS no. 39

5” x 8.5” • 192 pages • $19.00

eBook ISBN: 9781946022813