Mrs Zigzag: The Extraordinary Life of a Secret Agent's Wife (20 page)

11

A
HEALTHY BUSINESS

B
etty had developed Shenley Lodge in a way that hadn’t been tried before in Europe. As a consequence, she became an expert in the field of health clubs. She developed a highly satisfactory formula for the organisation and management of a health resort. Shenley was like a master plan; everybody wanted one like it. Betty had numerous connections with royals and all sorts of other people who had visited Shenley. Because of this, various prominent people wanted her to set up health farms for them. One such visitor was the Shah of Iran,
¹
who also persuaded King Hussein’s sister, Princess Basma,
²
to stay at Shenley. Ironically, one of their last clients, one recommended by the Shah, became Eddie’s last mistress. But in the years immediately before Betty’s involvement in Iran, other countries beckoned. Unfortunately, it turned into a time of massive disappointment for her:

I visited Nigeria in 1976 because one of my clients at Shenley Lodge was the wife of a banker, and she wanted me to build a health farm similar to Shenley in Nigeria, on the central Jos Plateau, which consisted of extensive lava surfaces dotted with many extinct volcanoes. It was almost like an English getaway in Nigeria, for the British that worked there.

The idea was that I would set up a main building like I had done at Shenley, which had treatments, saunas, shops and everything to do with the health farm. But instead of having bedrooms like we had at Kilkea Castle, accommodation would be in twenty-five chalets, which I would also build. A friend of mine called Sue, whose husband was a lawyer, prepared a business plan for me. It was financed by the husband of the lady that stayed at Shenley and originally approached me about it. It had a budget of about £3 million. In Nigeria, I first went to her home on Victoria Island; then to a big hotel like the Hilton, where we met and discussed the plan.

It was a vast undertaking, I worked on it for about three years, coming and going by Scottish Airlines to Nigeria. Sometimes I would stay with the banker and his wife and at other times in the hotel. We would then take a plane together to the area where the work was. The idea was that I would train all the staff at Shenley and then send them to Nigeria to run the place. I had planning permission, and everything to do with the project. It was ready to go.

But sadly, the banking facilities fell apart – her husband suddenly left the bank (I suspected skulduggery). So, the £3 million was gone, and the plans were all scrapped. All the same, my friend, who arranged it all, still came to Shenley for the years to come. She was a little greedy and rather than let me get on with the chalets and furnish them, she wanted to do it so that she could make the profit. I think she was responsible for the downfall as she took too much out of it. She would come to England and buy stuff which she would then sell on for a lot more in Nigeria. She had a good relationship with customs and got away with a lot! In fairness, I must say that I was taken very good care of. I had everything that it was possible to have, and I was spoiled rotten by everyone I met there. The Nigerians themselves were nice and so I couldn’t complain.

At around the same time, the Turkish government invited me to do the same there. They wanted to buy an apartment block in Larnaca, in Turkish Cyprus, and asked if I would set up an operation there. So, I got on with all the arrangements for that. It was all laid out and they got the building. We had arranged our terms which, as with the Nigerian project, were for Shenley training for staff, for me to take care of the whole thing. But then they demanded that I commit myself to them for twenty-five or thirty years, to take care of them (and show them a nice profit). I thought that was too much of a burden, because I had my own responsibilities at Shenley. So, in the end, the project was abandoned.

Then, I went to Kuwait to do a similar project for the Emir. The Emir was taken care of by a doctor friend that we knew in England. He was going to finance the setting up of a health clinic in Kuwait. That’s where I experienced my first sandstorm – it blew me away. Setting up the project was a very tricky thing to do because men and women couldn’t be seen together, so I had to have different places for each. Therefore, it meant a lot of planning and work. So, I arranged my fee and everything for that, which I believe was going to cost a couple of million. His physician was in overall charge of the project on the Emirate’s behalf. What happened? With my luck, as always, the Emir died – and with him, the project.

I was also invited to set up an operation in the Philippines. There was a surgeon there who performed psychic operations, so we had correspondence. His people used to come over here and talk to me about it, and there were great, great discussions again. I thought that it was quite exciting. The idea was to set up a clinic with a health farm attached for after-surgery care. And, of course, that fell through. It was just too far away for me to operate something like that. Not only that, it was a time of great unrest in the Philippines, around the time of the overthrow of President Marcos.

The Shah of Iran’s sister, Princess Shahnaz invited me to Iran in 1978.
³
She wanted me to build a health farm in her home area of Shiraz. I knew the rest of the family already, because the Shah’s family used to stay at Shenley. On the way to Tehran I stayed in Kuwait with an English friend, John Fox and his wife. He was always dealing in something with the Arab world. He had sold some cement to the Iraqis – this happened while I was there – and he’d obviously done the ‘best’ deal that he could. That was his style. He got a message while I was there from the Iraqis saying, in so many words, that he’d ripped them off. And they said, ‘If you don’t return the money we will send someone out to remove your private parts.’ So, without any hesitation, he agreed. Not only did he lose his profit, he lost the money that he’d invested in the cement. Eventually he came back to England, and years later I went to his funeral to see him off!

When I got to Tehran from Kuwait, the press was there waiting for me in the early hours of the morning, as Eddie’s film (
Triple Cross
) had been shown there recently. Eddie never actually came with me to Iran but the Shah’s family was very fond of him and loved to be entertained by him at Shenley. I went to Iran to stay with Parri Wyatt, whose husband was the ambassador to Jordan. Parri was the equivalent of a lady-in-waiting to Princess Manijeh, the Shah’s niece. It was through them that I met Princess Basma, who frequently came to Shenley and who has also remained a friend. When in Iran, I stayed in Parri’s hotel, a very big hotel in the centre of Tehran. All the staff from the airlines used to stay there, and I stayed there on and off for two or three weeks at a time for a year or two. She also owned the Austrian embassy building in Tehran, and several other properties. She was quite well known at that time. On that particular morning, I was late arriving from Kuwait, so we sat in the garden next to the swimming pool having our breakfast and a good long chinwag at five in the morning. It was ever so romantic, I thought. Once, in Kuwait, I got caught in a sandstorm on my way back to Tehran. If you have never been caught in a sandstorm you can’t imagine how it is! It is in your ears, your eyes, your clothes, anywhere it can get!

When I first met Princess Shahnaz it was in her palace. I was driven out of the city in a Rolls-Royce up this very wide dual carriageway: I have never seen such a well-kept carriageway! I was escorted by outriders as if I was royalty myself. When we arrived, Princess Manijeh and her husband led the way and we met the secretary of the Iranian Embassy in London. He exclaimed, ‘Mrs Chapman!’ and greeted me as an old friend. He used to come down to stay with us at Shenley and bring official guests of the embassy. We put our feet up and servants washed the soles of our feet, as is the tradition. I became close friends with Princess Manijeh, who I am still in contact with today; she now lives in Paris. I was even in Tehran one time when it was Princess Manijeh’s birthday, and I was the only one at the party not from the family.

Princess Shahnaz was sitting in the middle of a garden, a kind of terrace with a lot of steps. She was sitting in a big high-backed chair, wearing black with jewels stitched all over the dress, and white fox furs draped around her. She was stunning. She was wearing enough jewellery to send me around the world: earrings, bracelets, rings, you can’t imagine how many diamonds. Someone told me that at some stage her rings and bracelets were sold in Switzerland for £11 million. After I greeted her, I took my leave of her, but like the Queen here, you mustn’t turn your back. So, as I backed away, in doing so, I fell over a rose bush in the garden! It was so embarrassing, with everybody rushing to my aid!

Running right through the middle of the garden going down from the terrace were steps down to a canal at the bottom of the terrace. The steps were made of glass lit from below and with water running underneath, and either side of the steps were steps of flowers. At the bottom of the steps, a canal flowed; there were white swans and black swans. I’d never seen black swans before and I’ve never seen them since. It was such a picture; I can still see it all if I close my eyes.

I’ll remember forever the party that they gave for me in Princess Shahnaz’s palace. They cut my hair, and I was dressed in a beautiful costume. When we arrived at the palace we put our feet up and had the soles of our feet cleaned. At the door we were again met by the secretary of the Iranian Embassy in London. The party was given for what I had done for the Shah’s family when they stayed with me at Shenley. The palace was built on the top of her beautiful terraced gardens. It had a beautiful dome all in stained glass, like the windows in churches. The dome cost over a million alone. The tables under the dome were laid out for a feast for two or three hundred, and all lined up along the walls were about twenty chefs all dressed up in their chef’s outfits. All of the furniture was iron. There were trees and shrubs in pots all among the tables and around the walls. There were birds in cages and birds in the trees, all singing and twittering. In the middle of the meal, suddenly there was water dropping on me: the hugely expensive roof was leaking, which I found very funny! Afterwards they brought a violinist from Spain to entertain us, and the Shah and the Empress were sitting down in front. I sat with the family but, as we sat in the very big and comfortable armchairs, I fell asleep!

I had arranged to go on a trip with Princess Manijeh, since she was going on an official tour. But her father was taken sick and we couldn’t do the tour together as we planned, so I went alone. I went to Qom, where I went to a mosque.
⁴
There was a particular shrine there and I went to pray. I was going there to pray for someone who was very ill in England. Inside there was a heart-shaped locket and it was full of money and jewels – because people had to donate when they prayed. The people in England had asked me to go there to pray, because they knew that from the time I was on my feet I was down on my knees in prayer! I started lighting candles many years ago, and I light one every day for the planet.

When I went on my journey to Isfahan, I was looked after by the army, who kindly made sure that I saw what I wanted to see. It was a very interesting time. I went to the famous mosque and prayed for people that I knew. It was a really beautiful city. I stayed in the Shah’s summer palace with its wide and extensive gardens. When I arrived there were two fellows carrying armchairs and I jokingly said to the courier who had brought me there, ‘Oh, are they moving out?’ She said, ‘That’s for you to sit under the trees and have a cool drink.’ They brought them from the officers’ mess because, although the army looked after me, I was looked after by everybody really. We sat under a tree facing the summer palace. My clearest memory is of the weeping willows; it is such a clear picture to me even today. After our refreshments, we went into the palace, where there were rooms showing all the different countries of the world that had given presents to the Shah. Then I saw the Peacock Throne itself – mind boggling.
⁵

All of my plans were well under way when the revolution came along, and the Shah was deposed. The secret police were the Shah’s downfall. He was surrounded by people who told him only what he wanted to hear. Empress Farah Dibah was his backbone towards the end, and a timeless worker for the country. There was a massive amount of construction work in Tehran and the bazaar was full of intrigue. But rulers are only successful when surrounded by a trusted team, which they seldom are. Money or positions of power motivate most people when attracted to a new leader or situation. I saw that with Kwame Nkrumah as well.

I didn’t go back and all the plans for that part of the world came to an end. I remember one day, around that time, two people drove into Shenley who I thought were from the Iranian Embassy. This day we had visitors from the Shah’s family, Princess Manijeh and her husband. On that same day, the Shah’s mother and brother were also there, and they were in the lounge having tea. These two people who had just driven up asked for two members of the Shah’s family who were there. Their bodyguard, who was standing in the hall, took over immediately. When he became involved, the two people left, and we were never sure whether they were just trying to get at the Shah’s family.