This is a great book, a great read, a great story provided by a great woman. The Countess of Romanones when she was simply Aline Griffith a gorgeous model for Hattie Carnegie, New York's leading couturier in the 30's and 40's, had herself recruited for the OSS, the fore-runner to the CIA, early in World War II. Her brothers were serving our country and she, a patriot, wanted to do her part. After serious training at the OSS headquarters she was sent to Spain as a cryptologist. She was really too young to be sent abroad but her beauty and charm overwhelmed any man and she found herself in Madrid, not only breaking codes but becoming a genuine working spy for the United States. In the course of her life in Madrid she met and enchanted Luis Figueroa y Guzman el Bueno, a handsome grandson of the famous Count of Romanones who had been three times Prime Minister of Spain under Alfonso 13 and the man who advised the King to abdicate and leave the country to avoid bloodshed which never-the-less became the bloody Spanish Civil War. Luis then had the title of Count of Quintanilla before inheriting the Romanones title, and Aline had no idea that he was the wealthiest, most elegible man in Spain until after she had married him and he heaped his mother's fabulous jewels on her, went to a showing at Balenciaga and bought her the entire collection and took her around the word where they were received and entertained by the famous and fabulous world leaders.This book is filled with the Countess' recollections of the grand life with an incredible list of their friends: an intimate relationship with the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, The Baron Guy de Rothschild, Gianni Agnelli, Jack Warner, General Franco, Ava Gardner, Audrey Hepburn Fernando and Imelda Marcos and enough others to provide a dream life that few people can aspire to or even imagine. As a matter of full disclosure I know that everything in her book is true and even understated as I was her neighbor and friend when my wife and I lived down the beach from her house in Marbella for 28 years. In the course of many conversations I heard many of these stories, yet I bought this book and enjoyed them again and immensely. Aline Romanones is the real McCoy and I urge you to buy and enjoy this extraordinary experience