BEING friends with Frank Sinatra and dining at the White House during the Cuban Missile Crisis are featured in a semi autobiographical novel by 60s model, Sandra Howard.

Tell The Girl is the fifth book by the model turned novelist and Sandra will be on hand to sign copies at The Perfect Retreat in Chesham next month.

And Sandra has a lot to tell- her first ever modelling job was for Vogue and what followed was glamorous parties and meeting many famous faces of the 60s.

She said: "I didn't want to do an autobiography. You can't then take a small part of things you have done- you have got to drag through the whole thing.

"I thought that would be very boring."

So she turned it into a work of fiction but includes real events and real names including Frank Sinatra and John F Kennedy.

Sandra said: "They were people I had the amazing good fortune to meet and to get to know."

The book talks about her days working with the famous model agent, Eileen Ford and working in New York.

Her modelling career started after she went to charm school in London.

She said: "I had a friend who had a job offer with someone in TV. She couldn't really make it if she didn't have someone to share a flat with her in London.

"She suggested I could do a charm course. My parents amazingly agreed to it."

Sandra did three weeks of charm school and then joined the Lucy Clayton Modelling Agency.

Sandra said: "One of the models called in sick. She was about to go and work with Norman Parkinson who was a huge well known photographer at the time.

"I had to happen to be standing there in Lucy Clayton Agency at the time and she said you go along.

"I got my first ever picture in Vogue. I still have it.

"I was terrified. I have a bit of a stammer and his son had a bit of a stammer too. He was rather curious to compare our stammers."

She then went on to have a successful modelling career.

Sandra, who is married to former Tory leader, Michael Howard, said: "The 60s- well we all think our 20s were the best. The 60s was an extraordinary time. It was very creative and people were breaking down the barriers.

"The fashion world was changing. It was a thrill."

And she came to meet Frank Sinatra after her first husband, Robin Douglas-Home met the singer as he wanted to write a book about his music.

Sandra said: "He [Sinatra] took us under his wing. We spent weeks with him. I would defend him all the way down the line.

"He was great. He had that instinctive generosity. Whether he was rich or poor he would have been generous."

And through the British ambassador, who was a friend of hers, she met American president, J F Kennedy. She dined with him on the evening of the Cuban Missile Crisis.

She said: "In a way I rather wish I had been older. I would have observed more of the time."

Following the end of her modelling career Sandra tried various things before she wrote an article for the Spectator magazine.

A literary agent asked her if she had ever written a novel, which prompted her to go ahead and start writing. She is currently writing her next book.

Sandra said: "He [her husband, Michael Howard] has been amazing. He is not known for his patience but somehow or other he has found a rich seam of patience."

First Choice Speakers presents Sandra Howard at The Perfect Retreat at 120, High Street, Chesham at 11.30am on October 1. She will be signing her new book, Tell The Girl.

Go to www.the-perfect-retreat.co.uk.