No Invitation Required: The Pelham Cottage Years

by Annabel Goldsmith

Lady Annabel Goldsmith is a daughter of the 8th Marquess of Londonderry. The family fortunes were based on coal-mining. In her enthralling memoirs she told of her aristocratic upbringing with an increasingly eccentric father, a Conservative MP with strong liberal leanings, and a mother who died young from cancer. Her personal account of marrying Mark Birley at 20, the creation of Annabel's Club in Berkeley Square, and then her affair and later marriage to entrepreneur Sir James Goldsmith, enthralled many readers. The club was a huge success from the beginning and remains so into its fourth decade. Annabel had three children with Goldsmith, including Jemima, Zac and, Ben, who married into the Rothschild family. But tragedy was never far away: Rupert, her eldest son, died in an accident, and Goldsmith died from cancer after financing a campaign of candidates opposed to the John Major line on the EU at the 1997 general election. This book elegantly describes, in intimate and perceptive essays, pen-portraits of some of the extraordinary figures that entered the Birley and Goldsmith circles—among them, Lord Lambton, Patrick Plunket, John Aspinall, Geoffrey Keating, Lord Lucan, Dominic Elwes and Claus von Bulow. The richness of the narrative is in the particular detail and observation which only a true insider can record.

Genres: Memoir

288 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

Lady Annabel Goldsmith was an English socialite, author and political activist. She was the eponym of Annabel’s, the exclusive Mayfair nightclub founded by her first husband, businessman Mark Birley.

A prominent London society hostess during the 1960s and 1970s, she attracted media attention for her extramarital relationship with Anglo-French financier Sir James Goldsmith, a member of the Goldschmidt banking family, whom she later married. A descendant and heiress of the Marquess of Londonderry, her primary occupation was as a mother of six children born over a span of 25 years. She also founded the "Democracy Movement", a Eurosceptic political advocacy group, and published several works of memoir and commentary.

Lady Annabel died on 18 October 2025, at the age of 91.

Reviews

[Ann · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting life story of Annabel Goldsmith and her home -Pelham Cottage as she is a member of the Royals . She was married to two men who were wealthy and had 6 children but her life was extraordinary but not without drama and trauma with wealth and privilege.

[Saturday's Child · Rating 2 out of 5]

A quick and easy read about the people who visted Annabel Goldsmith and her family in their London home. No juicy "tell all" gossip just some fond memories from an English society Lady.