The missing former aide of the Duchess of York
has been arrested in Cornwall after being
spotted by police in her car in a "distressed
state".
Jane Andrews, 33, was found by officers in a
lay-by on the A38 road at Liskeard at 0645BST
and arrested in connection with the death of
her boyfriend, Thomas Cressman.
The body of 40-year-old businessman was
found at his house in Fulham, south west
London, on Monday.
Ms Andrews went
missing on Saturday
after ringing her
employers, the
Fulham-based jewellers
Theo Fennell, to say
she would not be in.
The Metropolitan Police
had circulated details
of the white VW Polo
car Mrs Andrews was
believed to be driving.
Sergeant Alan Mobbs
from Devon and Cornwall police said a
uniformed patrol spotted the car and went to
investigate.
He said Ms Andrews appeared to be using her
car to sleep in and was found "in a distressed
state".
She was taken to Liskeard police station and
was later taken to hospital for treatment.
Detectives from the Metropolitan police are
travelling down to interview her.
Police were called to Mr Cressman's house in
Maltings Place, Bagleys Lane, just after
1500BST on Monday by a colleague who had
let himself into the house with a set of keys.
Jewel theft
Detective Chief Inspector, Jim Dickie, said a
murder investigation had been launched, but
added that he was keeping an open mind
about the death.
A post-mortem examination revealed he died of
stab wounds, but no further details were
available.
Ms Andrews was a dresser for the Duchess of
York for nine years.
She was based at Buckingham Palace and
accompanied the Duke and Duchess on foreign
tours.
She left three years ago, but stayed in
contact with her former employer through
birthday and Christmas cards.
In 1995 Ms Andrews hit
the headlines after
discovering
£250,000-worth of the
jewellery belonging to
the Duchess had been
stolen from a suitcase
which she checked into
an aircraft hold in New
York.
The diamond necklace
and bracelet were a
wedding gift from the
Queen. They had been stolen by a baggage
handler and were later recovered.
The Duchess was said to be shocked at the
news of Mr Cressman's death and appealed for
Ms Andrews to let police know where she was.
Ms Andrews and Mr Cressman had been
together for two years and had recently
returned from a holiday in Italy and France.
The victim's older brother, Rick, said: "My
mother and father have lost a precious son
and my sister and I have lost a talented,
generous and loving brother."
"His nephews and nieces adored him and we
will all miss him more than we can say.
"He was in the prime of his life, and to be
robbed of his future in this way is shocking to
everyone."
~*~
King of the East (UK Times: Book)
PRINCE OF PRINCES
The Life of Potemkin
By Simon Sebag Montefiore
Prince Grigory Alexandrovich
Potemkin was larger than life in
every conceivable sense. Tall,
massively built, hirsute and rude of
health, he was a real force of
nature. Starting out as an obscure
minor nobleman, he became the
lover (and, secretly, husband) of
Catherine the Great, co-ruler of
the Russian empire and one of the
richest individuals of his day. He
was famed throughout Europe for
his palaces, his jewels, his parties and his women. While he
spent much of his life lounging about on sofas, bare
hairy-chested in fur-lined silk dressing-gowns, he would
suddenly burst into fits of manic activity, or else disappear
into a monastery and immerse himself in religious mysticism.
The Prince de Ligne, who knew all the titans of his time,
from Frederick the Great to Napoleon, described Potemkin
as "the most extraordinary man I ever met . . . dull in the
midst of pleasure; unhappy for being too lucky; surfeited with
everything, easily disgusted, morose, inconstant, a profound
philosopher, an able minister, a sublime politician or like a
child of ten years old". Such an outrageous character was
not calculated to appeal to the prudishly Protestant moral
climate of the 19th century, which dismissed his
achievements and put down his success, in Byron's phrase,
to "homicide and harlotry". In Russia, the Romanovs
preferred to forget about what they saw as an unedifying
episode in their family's past, while the Soviets recoiled from
the man's extravagances. As a result, he has gone down in
history as a cross between Madame de Pompadour and
Rasputin.
Simon Sebag Montefiore exposes the mendacity of most of
the Potemkin legends and refutes vigorously the negative
judgments, using an impressive range of original sources.
Potemkin emerges as a man of tremendous abilities. He was
a brave soldier and a good strategist with a flair for picking
the right commanders. He won two wars against the Turks,
which gave Russia the Crimea and a coastline on the Black
Sea. He was also, in his apparently haphazard way, a very
good administrator. As the effective ruler of what is now
Ukraine, he developed the whole region, bringing in settlers,
planting trees and vines, establishing factories and shipyards,
importing British gardeners and naturalists. He built an entire
fleet and founded a string of towns such as Kherson,
Sebastopol, Ekaterinoslav, Nikolaev and, finally, Odessa.
Undoubtedly Potemkin's greatest achievement was to
manage Catherine herself. She was an exceptional ruler, but
her position as a solitary woman on a notoriously unsteady
though powerful throne rendered her vulnerable, both to her
enemies and to her emotions. She was certainly not the
Salome of legend (more of a hausfrau in many ways), but
she did need a man about the house. Potemkin was never
just another favourite. He fulfilled the role of a husband from
an early stage, advising, contradicting, and above all calming
her. He had an instinctive feel for politics and diplomacy, and
he helped her to play off the various interest groups to her
own advantage. It is largely his merit that Catherine did not
come to blows with Frederick William of Prussia in 1791,
which would have been disastrous for Russia. He certainly
saved Catherine from becoming yet another autocratic
harridan in the tradition of Elizabeth.
It is a wonderful story, and Simon Sebag Montefiore tells it
with joyful verve. He evidently warms to Potemkin's
overblown personality and relishes the adventurers who
swarmed around him. He has a firm grasp of the politics at
the Russian court and of the diplomatic context, which is not
easy, since the centre of gravity of this story shifts between
St Petersburg, Vienna, Berlin and Istanbul. He is very good
on the relationship between Potemkin and Catherine. His
explanation of the day-to-day mechanics of the unusual
ménage is light-handed, movingly told and psychologically
credible. Even the bizarre process whereby Potemkin
effectively vetted her later lovers while she accepted his
mistresses almost as "family" is made to appear reasonable
when set in context. And nobody could accuse the author of
skimping on that score. He cannot resist including a telling
detail or a spicy story, and indulges his taste for the
extravagant and the grotesque to such a degree that there are
moments when the historical plot becomes obscured. But it
would be churlish to complain, as the material is so
enjoyable, and it is related with evident pleasure and
enthusiasm.
ADAM ZAMOYSKI