LADY CRABTREE - THE OFFICIAL SITE

Paul had been introduced to the comedy double act of Patrick Fyffe and George Logan - HINGE & BRACKET - in the summer of 1976 and was inspired by this extremely clever female impersonation, where the line between reality and make-believe became blurred. He saw many of their live performances over the next twenty-five years, met Patrick on numerous occasions, and in 1985 Dame Hilda Bracket wrote the Foreword to one of Paul's books.

It was while appearing in cabaret in 1978 that Paul James decided to create his own character - and LADY CRABTREE made her first public appearance. Intended only as a single performance, Paul was surprised by the audience demand to see more of Lady C - and the act began to develop.

Wanting Lady Crabtree to be as credible as Hinge & Bracket, yet completely different in style and character, he avoided their cosy nostalgia and made Lady C very much a woman of her times. The redoubtable Lady Crabtree told stories of her marital problems with husband Claude (chairman of the mid-Yorkshire Swine Breeders' Federation); the difficulties she had encountered on marrying into the aristocracy; the embarrassment caused by her twin sister Millicent (currently on husband number five), and was not afraid to air her views about public figures - especially when Mrs Thatcher entered Downing Street in 1979.

Although Lady Crabtree occasionally sang - there was a deliberate attempt to avoid comparison with Hinge & Bracket, and Lady C was much more likely to launch into a Joyce Grenfell style comic monologue. And she was just a touch more glamorous!

Various invitations came in and Lady C judged a fancy dress competition and a beauty contest, made a presentation to Sir Anthony Harris (son of 'Bomber' Harris), and by 1982 had appeared on a celebrity panel game for BBC Radio 2, had undertaken many press interviews, continued to perform in hotels, and frequently aired her views in the media. She made her first TV appearance on the popular BBC 1 programme "Pebble Mill at One", and wrote two books that became international best-sellers, making extensive promotional tours of the UK and undertook the inevitable bookshop signing sessions at well-known stores.

The act developed further when Lady Crabtree was joined on stage by her son GILES in 1984, followed a year later by her old chum MORAG AUCHTERMUCHTY from Finishing School days.

LADY C's BIOGRAPHY

CONSTANCE MAY ROSE BATTERSBY was born in Warrior Square Gardens, St Leonard's-on-Sea, East Sussex, on 1st May 1948; her twin sister Millicent was delivered shortly afterwards. This was not only a shock to their mother - who hadn't realised that she was pregnant - but even more of a surprise to people taking a stroll through Warrior Square Gardens.

With parents in the theatre (performing as the variety double-act 'The Gay Goslings'), the girls travelled widely throughout childhood, and Constance completed her education at Madame Bernice's Academy of Refinement and Beauty in London. She met her husband-to-be, the Hon Claude Crabtree, at the Assembly Rooms in York during her twenty-first birthday ball. After a whirlwind romance, they were married on 1st July 1969 in the gloomy church of King Herod the Great on the Crabtree family estate, at Cleghorn St Percy, North Yorkshire. The couple later had twin sons, Giles (disinherited, 1983) and Miles (the present Lord Crabtree, 10th Baron, 1984).

When Claude's father (Montfort, 8th Baron Crabtree) died on 7th June 1977, Claude inherited the Barony and Constance became Lady Crabtree. It still rankles with her that, if he had died just a day earlier, she would not have been deprived of her seat in St Paul's Cathedral for the Queen's Silver Jubilee Service. She is convinced that he lingered deliberately, just to spite her.

Now a fully-fledged member of the aristocracy, her public life began in earnest in 1978, especially in connection with Lord Crabtree's role as Chairman of the Mid-Yorkshire Swine Breeders' Federation - the Crabtrees owning some of the largest sties in Yorkshire. A highlight of her early married life was when the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh came to a dinner at Crabtree Hall, which greatly improved Lady C's social standing as a society hostess. Continuing her family's interest in the theatre, Lady Crabtree became Patron of the Cleghorn Local Amateur Players (The CLAP) - a role she still endures to this day.

After Claude's untimely death at a dinner party in 1984, the Dowager Lady Crabtree found herself financially embarrassed - faced with astronomical death duties and Claude's gambling debts. Taking pity on her situation, the Queen offered her the post of Relief Woman of the Bedchamber within the Royal Household. In 1988, after publishing extracts from the Queen's diaries and letters, in the misguided belief that she was doing Her Majesty a great favour, Lady Crabtree unexpectedly found that her services were no longer required. In 2005 she became a Reserve Lady in Waiting to Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall.

Now residing in Eastbourne, dividing her time between a sea front hotel and a Home for Gentlewomen Living in Reduced Circumstances, Lady Crabtree continues to fulfill an active public life.