Paul Bernard du Feu (September 1935 – 1 January 2013) was a

Welsh Welsh may refer to: Related to Wales * Welsh, referring or related to Wales * Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales * Welsh people People * Welsh (surname) * Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peop ...

builder, painter, author and model. He is best known for his marriages to the feminist

Germaine Greer Germaine Greer (; born 29 January 1939) is an Australian writer and public intellectual, regarded as one of the major voices of the radical feminist movement in the latter half of the 20th century. Specializing in English and women's literatu ...

and the poet

Maya Angelou Maya Angelou ( ; born Marguerite Annie Johnson; April 4, 1928 – May 28, 2014) was an American memoirist, popular poet, and civil rights activist. She published seven autobiographies, three books of essays, several books of poetry, and ...

. He published the memoir ''Let's Hear it for the Long-legged Women'' in 1973.

Life

Born in 1935 in

Wrexham Wrexham ( ; cy, Wrecsam; ) is a city and the administrative centre of Wrexham County Borough in Wales. It is located between the Welsh mountains and the lower Dee Valley, near the border with Cheshire in England. Historically in the count ...

, Wales, the son of a civil servant, du Feu grew up in London. His French surname came from ancestors who settled in the

Channel Islands The Channel Islands ( nrf, Îles d'la Manche; french: îles Anglo-Normandes or ''îles de la Manche'') are an archipelago in the English Channel, off the French coast of Normandy. They include two Crown Dependencies: the Bailiwick of Jersey, ...

.Collection of material, partly unattributed

Clapham Clapham () is a suburb in south west London, England, lying mostly within the London Borough of Lambeth, but with some areas (most notably Clapham Common) extending into the neighbouring London Borough of Wandsworth. History Early history T ...

Old Xaverian Archive He attended

King's College London King's College London (informally King's or KCL) is a public research university located in London, England. King's was established by royal charter in 1829 under the patronage of King George IV and the Duke of Wellington. In 1836, King's ...

, studying English literature, during which time he married Shirley Thompson, with whom he had two children. After graduating he worked as a builder.

Marriage to Germaine Greer

In 1968 after being discharged from the hospital where he had been treated for alcohol poisoning, du Feu met

, then an assistant lecturer at the

University of Warwick The University of Warwick ( ; abbreviated as ''Warw.'' in post-nominal letters) is a public research university on the outskirts of Coventry between the West Midlands (county), West Midlands and Warwickshire, England. The university was founded i ...

, outside a pub in

Portobello Road Portobello Road is a street in the Notting Hill district of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in west London. It runs almost the length of Notting Hill from south to north, roughly parallel with Ladbroke Grove. On Saturdays it is ...

and after a brief courtship they married at Paddington Registry office. Though their marriage officially lasted five years, their relationship lasted only three weeks. Greer later recalled that she had been unfaithful to du Feu seven times during their short relationship, and she had spent her wedding night in an armchair because her husband, drunk, would not let her in bed. Eventually, during a party near

Ladbroke Grove Ladbroke Grove () is an area and a road in West London in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, passing through Kensal Green and Notting Hill, running north–south between Harrow Road and Holland Park Avenue. It is also a name given to ...

, "' turned to me and sneered (drunk as usual): 'I could have any woman in this room.' 'Except me,' I said, and walked away forever.'" After this, du Feu posed in British

Cosmopolitan Cosmopolitan may refer to: Food and drink * Cosmopolitan (cocktail), also known as a "Cosmo" History * Rootless cosmopolitan, a Soviet derogatory epithet during Joseph Stalin's anti-Semitic campaign of 1949–1953 Hotels and resorts * Cosmopoli ...

, thought to be their first almost-naked male centerfold''.'' In 1973 he also published an erotic memoir, ''Let's Hear it for the Long-legged Women'', for which it is claimed he was paid more than Greer had been given as the advance for her 1970 work ''

The Female Eunuch ''The Female Eunuch'' is a 1970 book by Germaine Greer that became an international bestseller and an important text in the feminist movement. Greer's thesis is that the "traditional" suburban, consumerist, nuclear family represses women sexual ...

.''

Marriage to Maya Angelou

du Feu met

Soho Soho is an area of the City of Westminster, part of the West End of London. Originally a fashionable district for the aristocracy, it has been one of the main entertainment districts in the capital since the 19th century. The area was develop ...

in 1971, at a literary event for her best-selling autobiography, ''

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings ''I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings'' is a 1969 autobiography describing the young and early years of American writer and poet Maya Angelou. The first in a seven-volume series, it is a coming-of-age story that illustrates how strength of charact ...

''. They married in 1974, and exchanged vows two further times, but divorced in 1983. They remained friends, and Angelou helped du Feu financially during his later years.

Later life

du Feu spent the rest of his life in

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

, both in

Berkeley Berkeley most often refers to: *Berkeley, California, a city in the United States **University of California, Berkeley, a public university in Berkeley, California * George Berkeley (1685–1753), Anglo-Irish philosopher Berkeley may also refer ...

and later in

Oakland Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third largest city overall in the Bay A ...

, where he worked in home renovation. He died in January 2013.

References

1935 births 2013 deaths People from Wrexham Maya Angelou {{UK-model-stub