The Comte de St Germain was an inscrutable figure who suddenly appeared in London in 1745. He was a man without a past, and openly admitted that his chosen name was fictitious. A wonderful musician and composer, witty and courteous, he dispensed diamonds, never ate in public, dropped hints of his own physical immortality, and claimed to have no interest in sexually relations of any kind. Following his English appearance, the Comte disappeared for 12 years, surfacing for two years in pre-revolutionary France as the confidant of Louis XV, then vanishing once more for 11 years, only to reappear in Belgium, Russia and Germany. Following his disputed death in 1784, several notables claimed to have met him decades later, ever-wealthy and every youthful. Cooper-Oakley's investigation of the St Germain legend is an occult classic, in which she painstakingly draws together letters, diaries and private records of St Germain, to provide the most comprehensive picture we possess of the enigmatic Count.
