Welcome to a very special, pink-hued episode of The Poshcast! This week, Sophia Money-Coutts and Cleo Watson are running wild in Hertfordshire. They've parked their bottoms on the hallowed velvet sofa of Camfield Place—home of the undisputed queen of romantic fiction, Dame Barbara Cartland.

To help us unpack the intriguing, outrageous, and thoroughly exhausting paradox that is Dame Barbara, Cleo and Sophia are joined by writer Matthew Sweet, author of a new biography, The Great Dictator. Together, they dive nose-first into her eccentricities: why did she use Meltonian shoe cream instead of mascara? How did she rack up 49 proposals? And was she really as much of a prude about sex as she may have seemed?

From travelling across America with a stuffed Pekingese under her arm to her legendary, claws-out television showdown with Jackie Collins, no pink feather is left unturned.

And because we're obsessed with what 'the done thing' is, Sophia and Cleo leaf through Dame Barbara's vintage etiquette tips to see if they hold up in the 21st century. Get ready for some serious home truths on interior decorating, dietary fusspots, and praising your husband’s lovemaking…

So hold on to your hats for a riotously funny look at the 20th century's most magnificent romantic force, the Great Dictator herself, Dame Barbara Cartland.

📧 Email us: theposhcast@telegraph.co.uk

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The Great Dictator by Matthew Sweet is out now.

To order your copy for £19.99, call 0330 173 0523 or visit Telegraph Books.

📰 Read: ‘Women should be like pretty chocolate boxes’: The bizarre world of Barbara Cartland

Video Producer: Carla Mercer

Social Editor: Ruby Borg

Executive Producer: Louisa Wells

Highlights:

• Should women ever say I love you first?
• The Barbara Cartland Special

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