It is a curious fact, well attested by history, that a downright ugly man need never despair of attracting women, even pretty ones. The recent uproar over John Prescott and his mistress is a good example. Of course this may have been a case of power acting as an aphrodisiac. Henry Kissinger, a keen student of such matters, has always insisted that power, or even mere office, is a sexual magnet. I recall him leaning across a dinner table, at a time when the antics of the late Alan Clark were in the headlines, and seeking from me an explanation of Clark’s success. He was particularly struck by the conquest of what Clark called ‘the Coven’ — the wife of a South African judge and their two daughters (a third wasn’t interested). ‘Sure, he was a minister,’ said Dr Kissinger, ‘but he wasn’t even in the Cabinet.’
Power and potency are closely related. Dr Kissinger himself is a good example of someone who radiates potentiality even when not in office, and his attraction for women is notorious. There are of course outward signs of inward grace. The Kissinger voice, with its deep gravelly timbre, strikes one as a pointer that ladies cannot ignore. A society woman with sharp eyes once listed for me other signs, and not just symbolic ones. She said that once, at a New England house party, sitting by the pool, she had been studying the great doctor’s physique when a momentary disarrangement of his swimming-trunks had given her an uncovenanted glimpse of what she called his ‘machinery’. ‘I ’ave nevair seen a pair like it,’ she said, ‘vraiment énorme!’
Another factor not to be ignored is humour, and the capacity to generate it. Here I think Alan Clark scored, until they got to know his jokes, which may explain why his fascination tended to be fleeting.
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