She bedded Trotsky, was （性的に）いたずらするd by Mussolini, got 拒絶するd by Hitler and ran off with Charlie Chaplin: How Churchill's cousin Clare Sheridan was a seductress... and Soviet 秘かに調査する

• e-mail

As the People’s Commissar of the Red Army, Leon Trotsky was the second most powerful man in Soviet Russia after Lenin. A ruthless 革命の and 群衆-rousing orator, Trotsky was 責任がある 非常に／多数の 集まり 殺人，大当りs, and was even rumoured to have 発射 his chauffeur for 存在 late.

It was little wonder then, that his British 訪問者 was nervous when she arrived late at his Kremlin office one afternoon in 1920, having been 拘留するd by 歩哨s.

Her 指名する was Clare Sheridan. She was a sculptor who had travelled from London to Moscow to produce 破産した／（警察が）手入れするs of Trotsky, Lenin and other Soviet leaders.

Beautiful bohemian: A portrait of Clare from one of her 調書をとる／予約するs, published in 1921

Blonde, glamorous, aristocratic and bohemian, she 代表するd everything that Trotsky should have hated.

But during that 会合 he gazed at her in a way that left her in no 疑問 how attractive he 設立する her. For her part, Clare was 明確に mesmerised by Trotsky’s sparkling blue 注目する，もくろむs and shock of hair above his trademark pin ce-nez. ‘When he 会談 his 直面する lights up and his 注目する，もくろむs flash,’ she wrote.

Their flirtation smouldered as the clay sculpture took 形態／調整 over the に引き続いて days. He 賞賛するd her beauty, her halo of golden hair. At one point, he kissed her 手渡すs to warm them after she was caught in a snowstorm.

Another time, she asked him to unbutton his collar. ‘He undid his tunic and the shirt underneath and laid 明らかにする his neck and chest,’ she confided in her diary.

Trotsky was 39 and married, Clare was 35 and 未亡人d with two small children 支援する in London. A few nights later, Trotsky took her in his 武器 and kissed her passionately. Then, Trotsky’s 伝記作家 Robert Service believes, they became lovers.

What makes their 事件／事情／状勢 all the more astonishing is that the woman 存在 ravished by Trotsky in his Kremlin office was the first cousin of the arch-enemy of the Soviets, Winston Churchill, then the 国務長官 for War.

Trotsky was 39 and married, Clare was 35 and 未亡人d with two small children 支援する in London.?A few nights later, Trotsky took her in his 武器 and kissed her passionately

It is surprising that we do not know more about Clare, an alluring aristocratic beauty and surely one of the most bewitching, fascinating 人物／姿／数字s of the の間の-war period. She was 勇敢に立ち向かう and talente d but utterly 慣習に捕らわれない. Churchill himself called her ‘this wild cousin of 地雷’.

In an age when women had to at least appear virtuous, Clare saw no need to hide her beauty and devil-may-care sex 控訴，上告 ? and men from every background and race were only too keen to indulge it. Even the toughest men seemed to melt when 直す／買収する，八百長をするd by Clare’s large, limpid 注目する，もくろむs and 空気／公表する of helplessness, which belied a ruthless streak. Her own brother once 述べるd her as a ‘cad’ for the way she 扱う／治療するd men.

Wherever in the world she travelled, she left a 追跡する of lovers behind, not to について言及する a damning dossier of 証拠 collected by MI5, which 嫌疑者，容疑者／疑うd her of 秘かに調査するing for the Soviets 同様に as sleeping with them.

Trotsky was not Clare’s first Bolshevik paramour. She had gone to Moscow at the 招待 of his brother-in-法律, Lev Kamenev, a 外交官 whom she had met in London.

They too were lovers, and she had sculpted his 破産した／（警察が）手入れする at her London studio. When it was time for him to return to Moscow, he 招待するd her to …を伴って him, 約束ing that Lenin and Trotsky would sit for her.

Keen for adventure, and smitten by both Kamenev and the picture of a 社会主義者 楽園 he painted, she agreed. Telling her brother Oswald not to breathe a word to their parents or to her cousin Winston ? who had 圧力（をかける）d the British 政府 to 味方する with the Bolsheviks’ enemies in the ロシアの Civil War ? she left for Moscow in September 1922.

When Churchill 設立する out, he was furious and 辞退するd to speak to her on her return.

Clare was not the only Briton to make their way to Russia in those febrile 地位，任命する-革命の days.

A new 展示 at the British Library, 場内取引員／株価 the 100th 周年記念日 of the ロシアの 革命, features artefacts, literature and art from that period, 含むing mate rial about several Britons 伴う／関わるd in the 革命 and its 影響.

Clare sculpting her cousin Winston Churchill’s 破産した／（警察が）手入れする in 1942.?Clare died in 1970, five years after Churchill. Her forgiveness, it seems, was 完全にする

They 含むd the writer and 社会主義者 HG 井戸／弁護士席s and the 新聞記者／雑誌記者 Arthur 身代金 ? who would later 令状 Swallows And アマゾンs, and who 内密に 秘かに調査するd for MI6.

But it was Clare Sheridan, the glamorous golden-haired beauty, who 原因（となる）d the greatest 動かす 支援する in Britain, because of her 関係 to Churchill.

She was an ありそうもない 共産主義者. Born in 1885, her mother was Clara Jerome, who あられ／賞賛するd from a 豊富な American family and whose sister Jennie married Randolph Churchill. Winston was their son.

Clare’s father Moreton Frewen was 愛称d ‘Mortal 廃虚’ because his harebrained 財政上の 計画／陰謀s 破産者／倒産したd the family.

Clare was intelligent and harboured literary ambitions, but her adore d cousin Winston ? they were as の近くに as siblings ? advised her against a 令状ing career. ‘Better to please and 奮起させる the male sex,’ he wrote patronisingly. In 1910, at the age of 25, she married Wilfred Sheridan, a far from 豊富な stockbroker.

In 1912 they had a daughter, Margaret. A second daughter, Elizabeth, died from meningitis. 荒廃させるd, Clare designed a statue of a ひさまづくing angel as a 記念の, sculpting it herself out of clay, and discovered that she had a talent for it.

In May 1915, with Clare 妊娠している again, Wilfred went to fight in フラン. But just days after their longed-for son and 相続人, Richard, was born, Clare’s letters to Wilfred were returned ? with ‘Killed in 活動／戦闘’ scrawled across them. While most war 未亡人s of the age 辞職するd themselves to a 選び出す／独身 life, Clare did not believe in celibacy.

In fact, she 布告するd that a woman should be able to choose her lovers and 耐える children with any man of her choice without having to marry him. Lord Alexander Thynne, the Marquess of Bath’s son, was the first in a long line of lovers and Clare was 荒廃させるd when he too was killed in 1918.

Again she sought solace in sculpting. の中で those who sat for her were the former 総理大臣, Lord Asquith, her cousin Winston, and his 広大な／多数の／重要な friend Lord Birkenhead, the Lord （ドイツなどの）首相／（大学の）学長.

She and Birkenhead became lovers, and 原因（となる）d a スキャンダル ? because he was married.

Her anguished mother 控訴，上告d to Churchill to intercede but 譲歩するd in her 定期刊行物s: ‘He adores Clare, thinks she can do no wrong... so whatever スキャンダル these two create together is in Winston’s 見解（をとる） no スキャンダル ? they are splendid, a nd whatever they feel like doing is perfect.’

But capricious Clare soon moved on from Birkenhead to Kamenev, whose talk of Bolshevism, equality and freedom sounded like the perfect antidote to the class-ridden, money-obsessed society in which she was struggling to 生き残る.

Her brother Oswald was 懐疑的な, 令状ing in his diary: ‘She has got Bolshevism 不正に, she always 反映するs the 見解（をとる）s of the last man she’s met.’

When she returned from her ロシアの foray, her diary was serialised in The Times, 原因（となる）ing 乱暴／暴力を加える 予定 to the rosy light in which she 描写するd the Bolshevik 政権 ? although she did also complain that the ロシアのs stank 予定 to the scarcity of soap.

She wrote of Lenin’s dedication while Trotsky, she rhapsodised, was ‘a man of wit, and 解雇する／砲火／射撃 and genius, a Napoleon of peace.’ She failed to について言及する that she had taken both Trotsky and Kamenev as lovers. It was even rumoured that she had slept with Lenin and Felix Dzerzhinsky, 長，率いる of the 恐れるd Cheka (secret police).

Her family was appalled. These men, with their ‘terrible little 耐えるd and dripping with 血’ had killed millions, 公式文書，認めるd Jennie Churchill, Winston’s mother, acidly. And she was 権利. Dzerzhinsky had ordered the 拷問 and 殺人 of thousands while her ‘peace-loving’ Trotsky was 責任がある 集まり 死刑執行s and 大虐殺s. Both 手配中の，お尋ね者 to bring 負かす／撃墜する Western 僕主主義.

It was not just naivety: she was too intelligent not to realise that the people she 賞賛するd were murderous monsters, their 手渡すs drenched in 血.

As for Churchill, who had spent the 先行する years arguing for British 介入 to 倒す the Bolshevik 政権, he was so furious he could not speak to her.

In Hollywood she met Charlie Chaplin, who was magnetised by her allure. They went （軍の）野営地，陣営ing together in the Californian 砂漠

For all her rebelliousness, Clare was 傷つける when friends and family ostracised her. So she went on a speaking 小旅行する in America, lecturing about her ロシアの trip.

In Hollywood she met Charlie Chaplin, who was magnetised by her allure. They went （軍の）野営地，陣営ing together in the Californian 砂漠. But the 圧力（をかける） 跡をつけるd them 負かす／撃墜する and the 事件／事情／状勢 was plastered across the 前線 pages.

When asked if it was normal for respectable women in England to take lovers, Clare 答える／応じるd flippantly: ‘As many as they can get.’

支援する in England but still hungry for adventure, Clare left her children and 乗る，着手するd on a European 小旅行する. She interviewed 共和国の／共和党の leaders in Ireland and, in 1922, travelled to Switzerland, where she met Mussolini at a 会議／協議会.

Hoping to interview him, she 述べるd him as ‘marvellous’. He duly 招待するd her to Rome where one British 秘かに調査する sent t o 監視する her 報告（する）／憶測d that she ‘空気／公表するd her 見解（をとる）s... 特に in 関係 with 解放する／自由な love.’

But she also 宣言するd loudly that ‘Mussolini had 変えるd her from Bolshevism to Fascismo,’ perhaps to curry favour. It worked. He 招待するd her to his Rome hotel room, where she tried to 説得する him to be interviewed or sculpted.

One night Il Duce, as he was known, agreed to sit for her but then, 明らかに inflamed by lust, he grabbed her, snarling: ‘You will not leave till 夜明け, and then you will be broken in.’

Punches and 非難するs were 交流d, they 格闘するd furiously. Clare was taller than him, but Mussolini had bull-like strength.

At last she made a dash for the door and managed to 打ち明ける it, but as she opened it, he threw his 負わせる against it slamming it shut on her 肘.

When the telephone rang, distracting him, she managed to escape, though 不正に bruised. His 暴力／激しさ and ‘bestiality’ that night was, as she 解任するd in her memoir, ‘unwriteable’. She got her 復讐 by 述べるing him in print as a ‘grotesque tyrant in white spats.’

Yet still her escapades were not over.

In 1923, she went to Germany to hear Hitler speak. An MI5 informant 報告（する）／憶測d: ‘She was very much impressed with the 驚くべき／特命の／臨時の enthusiasm that 出身の Hitler 誘発するd amongst an audience of some 10,000 people, with an extraordinarily 血-thirsty speech.’

But he 公式文書，認めるd: ‘I gathered that she 設立する the German was nothing like so responsive to her personal charms as was the ロシアの, a fact she 嘆き悲しむd.’

支援する in London, her MI5 dossier was growing 厚い. They watched her, tapped her telephone and photographed her mail, which 確認するd their 疑惑s: Clare was feeding （警察などへの）密告，告訴（状） to the Soviets 経由で two ロシアの スパイ／執行官s, the Daily 先触れ（する） jour nalists George Slocombe and Norman Ewer.

She fed them snippets of conversations she had had with Churchill, by then （ドイツなどの）首相／（大学の）学長 of the 国庫, about 極度の慎重さを要する 支配するs such as 外務.

When MI5 知らせるd Churchill, he replied that he was not 用意が出来ている to 支払う／賃金 保釈（金） for her if she got into trouble with the 法律. And all the while Clare continued to collect lovers.

In the space of a few months she had 事件／事情／状勢s with a French general, a French 社会主義者 政治家，政治屋 and an Albanian 行動主義者 指名するd Ismet Bey.

MI5 公式文書，認めるd: ‘Her energies were 存在 used in every way for the furtherance of Soviet 計画／陰謀s.’

Restless, she moved to Algeria, where she was 簡潔に engaged to a philandering old Etonian, Major Ronnie Bodley, who dressed in Arab 着せる／賦与するs. She broke it off, but settled in the Saharan 砂漠 where, によれば her MI5 とじ込み／提出する, she seemed to be suspiciously 豊富な for a sculptor and 小説家. They surmised that the ロシアのs were 支払う／賃金ing her as an informant.

MI5 continued their 監視 of Clare into the 1940s.

She remained good friends with Churchill, にもかかわらず her betrayal, and visited him at Chartwell during the war. He 招待するd her to 負かす／撃墜するing Street to sculpt his 破産した／（警察が）手入れする.

She was exasperated by his 無（不）能 to sit still during the 開会／開廷／会期s in 1942. ‘He never gives me a chance. Always that 爆破d cigar in his mouth which 新たな展開s his 直面する,’ she complained. After two weeks of sittings ? they chatted about Mussolini as she moulded the clay ? Churchill professed himself delighted with the result.

Clare died in 1970, five years after Churchill. Her forgiveness, it seems, was 完全にする.

Was she really a Soviet 秘かに調査する? Katya Rogatchevskaia, lead curator of the British Library 展示, believes she was curious but ‘not a 納得させるd 共産主義者’. What is 確かな is that she fed （警察などへの）密告，告訴（状） to the Soviets, and took their money.

Certainly, MI5 felt that her 活動／戦闘s were 損失ing, embarrassing both Britain and Churchill, 予定 to her almost pathological ‘願望（する） to 人物／姿／数字 in the limelight’ and her attraction to powerful men.

Yet she was 許すd to remain 解放する／自由な, neither punished nor 拘留するd for her treachery, probably because she was so 井戸／弁護士席-connected. The class system she despised had saved her after all.

• ロシアの 革命: Hope, 悲劇, Myths at the British Library until August 29.