Arabella, Phoney Lady of Featherbed Lane; SHE CLAIMS TO HAVE BLUE BLOOD BUT HER MOTHER WORKED ON THE BUSES

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Byline: PAUL HARRIS

TO those who mix in high society circles, she is the delightfully grand-sounding Lady Arabella Russell-Sackett.

A perfect title, it would seem, for the ubiquitous social 'fixer' who has become a familiar figure around some of London's more gracious gatherings, writes for one of Britain's leading celebrity magazines and consorts with royalty.

Curiously, however, there is no mention of Lady Arabella in Debrett's, the definitive guide to the aristocracy. Nor is there any formal confirmation of aristocratic blood in her immediate family. For, despite her pretensions, this is no Lady - this is plain Lillian Sackett, daughter of a County Durham bus conductress and a father who is not named on her birth certificate.

Her 'family seat' is not some magnificent pile in the country but a distinctly suburban semi with quaint blue shutters in Featherbed Lane, Croydon.

Born Lillian Blake, she was a leading aircraftwoman in the Women's Royal Air Force when she married …