Having spent much of his adult life turning the grim raw material of his childhood into fiction, Robert Montagu was recently persuaded by the publisher Naim Attallah to tell his story straight. The result, written in just a few months, is as gripping as a thriller. But unlike most thrillers, it is both believable and shocking. Robert Montagu is the youngest of six children (and second son) of the Tory MP, Victor Montagu (1906-95), who disclaimed an earldom to continue his political career. To his friends, “Hinch”, as he was known, may have been charming, charismatic and a perfect host, but in his son’s memoir he appears arrogant, overbearing, sentimental and weak. Having inherited a title, a fortune and royal blood, he felt at liberty to do as he liked, justifying bad ex