Her father was a judge, she had a comfortable middle-class childhood and was taught by governesses.

ECONOMIST: Natalie Wraga

One is left wondering whether the governesses did not have a lot to answer for.

ECONOMIST: English lives

She was born in a stately home in Shropshire, and was taught by governesses.

ECONOMIST: Barbara Vernon Bailey

Most had to overcome scrappy early education, consisting at best of oddities imparted by governesses who rarely knew much themselves.

ECONOMIST: British bluestockings

As the daughter of Prince Narayan of Cooch Behar, in West Bengal, she grew up with dozens of staff and governesses recommended by Queen Mary.

ECONOMIST: Gayatri Devi, Maharani of Jaipur, died on July 29th, aged 90

How was it that the little upper-class girls brought up in the Cotswolds with dogs and ponies and educated by a string of governesses moved into the limelight of the political extremes of the 1930s?

ECONOMIST: English lives