She clearly did not sense this danger at the time for in the spring of 1988 she developed the theme telling Brian Walden

She clearly did not sense this danger at the time, for in the spring of 1988 she developed the theme, telling Brian Walden she intended to continue until a new generation of potential leaders emerged. This caused anguish among the more immediate hopefuls. Sir Geoffrey Howe and Nigel Lawson had been in their posts at the Foreign Office and the Treasury throughout the 1983 parliament, and they were still there. She told Kenneth Baker, her party chairman during the leadership crisis, that it led to her being called arrogant. The Prime Minister had given me her own forthright views on retirement in an interview on 11 May 1987, the day she announced the general election She intended "to go on and on and on" She later regretted using this phrase.

Talk about when she would retire, and who might succeed her, began almost as soon as the 1987 election was over. The 10th anniversary of Margaret Thatcher's arrival in Downing Street was due in May 1989, and she was suffering from the erosion of time. Despite her sensible attempts to give this date as little attention as possible, inevitably it cast a long shadow. And it is for this reason that the world of Liz and Ivana and Mona and Britt is so disturbing, so grotesque, and, as these photographs demonstrate, so savagely funny. By allowing us to hold up a mirror to our own worst instincts, it is also salutory.`Modern Times: The Fame Game' will be shown at 9pm on Wednesday 12 April on BBC2. Few of us can say that our personal lives are entirely disinterested, that no friendship is cultivated at least in part for its usefulness, that we are immune from snobbery, or unaware which of our friends has not quite enough money or which has too much We just play the game at a far lower level. Is Mona aware that she is letting herself be sold at the expense of any remnant of pri-vacy in her personal life? Does Ivana know that nobody in Britain, apart from members of the royal family, celebrate their enagage-ment with a press conference?And what of Liz Brewer? Does she never feel a little queasy from the blurring of business and pleasure? Certainly, if she does, she is far too well brought up to let it show.Just because caf society is utterly hollow and frivolous, it isn't necessarily uninteresting, or unworthy of observation, with its own rules, its own set dances, its own taboos.And it has roots, albeit fragile ones, in most people's lives.

Liz explained to the press that Bauwens was here to attend a private lunch with a group of women "achievers". Later, she modified the formula: "It's not exactly achievers. It's women who've got something to say."It is hard to look at the marketing of Ivana, and of Mona, and of the others, without wondering how conscious they are of just how it works. The papers quoted "close friend" Liz Brewer.This publicity seemed to clinch the contract with the Standard, and Liz Brewer summoned the press to the dining club of Anton Mosimann (another client) in Belgravia, where Mona Bauwens and Britt Ekland and various other women meet regularly for lunch. So the very day the deal was to be agreed on, out came a new revelation on the front page of the tabloids that David Mellor had, in fact, proposed to Mona Bauwens.

Bauwens, having enjoyed the limelight, afterwards wanted more of it.Bauwens also wanted to write, so Liz Brewer tried to negotiate a contract with the Evening Standard The newspaper, however, was hesitant. She became famous in 1992 when David Mellor resigned from the cabinet after it was revealed that Bauwens had paid for his family's holiday with her in Marbella. And Ivana Trump - she now has her own line in clothes and costume jewellery. But what do Britt Ekland or Soraya Khashoggi or the rest of this host of expensive blonde women actually do?Take Mona Bauwens, the daughter of a rich Palestinian businessman high up in the PLO. In private, there will be tears, tantrums, rages, screaming denunciations.

And Liz Brewer, with her pleasant, Home Counties voice, and good upper-middle-class upbringing, will soothe things over.Another problem is the buyers who want fame and attention, but not just for being buyers It is fine for Shirley Bassey - she sings. This must be a plot.Most days, one of Brewer's clients will blow a gasket. Before Ivana's engagement party, the Daily Mirror pointed out that there was a small hole in Ivana's stocking. Riccardo Mazzucchelli, bleached blue eyes popping out of his head, features working like a glove puppet, insists she never has a hole in her stockings Never. Believing that wealth is no use unless you can display it, they must work their money, and work their social lives, applying the same concentration and competitiveness that other people do to their jobs.It makes for an edgy, fragile world. The socialites, all so desperate about how they are perceived, must contend with so many social pitfalls - appearing in the same dress as another guest, being left off an invitation - and so many fatiguing details - the incovenience of retrieving jewellery from the bank vault, the tiresome fact that private planes sometimes have to land all the way out at Luton And behind it all lurks the paranoia.