A VAST stately home steeped in four hundred years of scandalous history and literary pedigree is to fling open its doors.

On October 14 and 15 Cliveden House, which sits above Maidenhead, will host the inaugural Cliveden Literary Festival.

With all its stunning, Palladian glory sitting astride a 120m long, 6.1m high terrace on a outlying ridge of the Chilterns, it is aesthetically suitable destination for an event that looks bring together sections of high society with some modern literary greats.

It is not beauty alone however, that has persuaded the likes of Ian McEwan, Howard Jacobson, Sebastian Faulks and Amanda Foreman to appear at the festival.

As Natalie Livingstone, the Festival’s curator and current custodian of the house, discovered when she wrote The Mistresses of Cliveden, the house’s story is a long one.

“It was built in 1666 by the second Duke of Buckingham George Villiers as a monument to his mistress,” explained Livingstone.

“She was a real beauty. All of the court of Charles II were at her feet.

“She was so in love with Cliveden that she left her two children to live there.”

Another notable occupier is Harriett Sutherland, a close friend of Queen Victoria and the woman called for upon Prince Albert’s death.

More recently, the house found both fame and notoriety when the Astor family took up residence at the turn of the 20th century.

Handed to young Waldorf and his wife Nancy in 1906, the house became an entertainment destination on a lavish scale and a favourite haunt of film stars, world leaders and authors.

“Alexander Pope, Jonathan Swift, Tennison, JM Barrie, George Bernard Shaw. They all came to Cliveden,” continued Livingstone.

“Nancy Astor however, I could talk about all day. She was Britain first female MP and a real controversial type.

“Truthfully, she was incredibly bigoted.”

Notorious antisemitism aside, the Astors left their biggest mark on Cliveden in 1961 when the-then Minister of War, John Profumo spied a naked Christine Keeler splashing around in the mansion’s outdoors pool.

What happened next would end the career of Profumo and cement the 19 year-old, who happened to be in a relationship with a Russian intelligence officer, in the nation’s conscience as the most contemporary mistress of Cliveden.

The Astors gave up the house in 1968 before it was bought up and turned into a hotel in 1984.

In 2012 the Livingstone family property company bought Cliveden and now, five years later, it will once again became a centre of intrigue, literary excellence and, perhaps, scandal.

“It is a really exciting thing to do,” she continued.

“Anyone who has been there finds it one of the most intoxicating places.”

Tickets to the Cliveden Literary Festival can be bought here www.clivedenliteraryfestival.org