Death by Dior, by Terry Cooper – review

This book may sound like it’s going to be about high fashion, but it’s actually about Nazism, satanism, incest and murder. Françoise Dior decided that her uncle Christian had been killed in a Jewish plot in 1957, so she joined a Nazi movement in France before moving to London to work for the cause over here. Later, she got more interested in the ‘spiritual side of Nazism’, which developed into a fascination with Satan. A sexual relationship with her teenage daughter Christiane eventually turned sour and when Françoise could no longer put up with her, she tricked Christiane into committing suicide.

It’s all told in a cheerful, chatty way by Terry Cooper, who was Françoise’s lover for many years. He proudly charts his rise from ordinary Dagenham schoolboy to international adventurer. Cooper’s first great glory was when he was 11: ‘If my secondary education was of a secondary nature, my sexual education can only be called a great success.’