Storm in a D Cup

De: June Kenton

Narrado por: Jill Kenton

From the early days selling garments in an open-fronted shop in Brixton, to the Queen’s private apartment–where she attends Her Majesty as the royal corsetiere–June Kenton’s story is full of surprises. She is the petite powerhouse who transformed London’s renowned Rigby & Peller into an internationally-recognised luxury lingerie brand and a multi-million-pound retail chain. Along the way, passion and principle have drawn June far from the exclusive boudoirs of the well-to-do and famous.

Nearly 20 years campaigning for freedom and justice saw her being ejected from the Wimbledon tennis championships, the Coliseum and dozens of other landmark venues. She then pushed herself to her physical limits trekking across the Sinai desert; and, in a cruel twist of fate, tackled breast cancer head-on. June Kenton insists that when she talks of bras she is talking to every woman. When she talks of her rich and varied life, the same is certainly true. This is her story….

©2017 Briar House (P)2023 June Kenton

From Brixton to Buckingham Palace

If you know one thing about June Kenton, the author of the brilliantly titled “Storm in a D Cup”, it is that she was the holder - the “grantee”, to use the proper term - of the Royal Warrant to sell underwear to her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II of England. In short, Mrs. Kenton had the unique distinction, for 35 years, of being the Queen’s corsetiere.

This newly released audiobook version of Mrs. Kenton’s memoirs, very capably narrated by her daughter Jill, a professional voice-over artist, recently kept me company on a business trip to New York (Manhattan, to be exact, not Queens, which would have been more – shall we say – ‘fitting’). And so, just as my outbound flight prepared for takeoff, the prologue landed me in the antechamber to the Queen’s bedroom for Mrs. Kenton’s first meeting with the monarch.

This remarkable life story is told at a brisk clip, with oodles of optimism, ample intelligence and refreshing humility. You might think that – were it not for said warrant – Mrs. Kenton’s would be an ordinary tale, but it is nevertheless well told, and full of eminently relatable episodes of progress and setbacks, of blessings and hard knocks. Her story is revealing, though not necessarily in the way you might imagine. For example, I was moved by Mrs. Kenton’s account of first becoming a mother by adopting a baby boy with talipes equinovarus, a (thankfully treatable) congenital deformity; and impressed by the telling of her impactful involvement in the 1970s with “The 35s”, formally known as the Women's Campaign for Soviet Jewry, as well as by multiple physically tasking treks to Israel for charity, starting in her sixties.

It is a quintessentially English story, set mostly in the boudoirs of Knightsbridge, Kensington and Mayfair, but with a distinct north London Jewish twist. In addition to its most famous patron, the clientele of Rigby & Peller, the highly recognized retail brand Mrs. Kenton and her husband-and-business partner Harold put on the global map, included other members of the royal family (Princess Margaret and a certain Princess of Wales among them) and a multitude of public figures from the worlds of entertainment, politics and fashion. This particular D cup positively runneth over with (unfalteringly discrete) anecdotes of celebrity shoppers and of their resulting friendships with Mrs. Kenton (insert bosom-buddy pun here).

How the entrepreneurial pair took its fledgling clothing business from relatively humble Brixton beginnings to a family business valued at approximately £10 million (the Kentons sold an 87 percent stake of Rigby & Peller for £8 million in 2011) may be particularly interesting to business-minded readers. Personally, I was rivetted by the transformative role played in Rigby & Peller’s ascent by public relations, an art the Kentons mastered. Although to be fair, they were supported, as if by underwire, in their PR efforts by our collective fascination (perhaps nowhere more so than in the land of Page 3) with two outstanding assets (one left and one right) not every business can boast a close association with.

A word on the narration of this audiobook edition by the aforementioned Jill Kenton, June and Harold’s daughter (full disclosure: Jill and I were boarding school classmates). It is a special and at times surreal treat to have Jill tell her mother’s life story, especially the parts about Jill herself. Just as Rigby & Peller was a family affair, so evidently is the production of this audiobook. It speaks to Jill’s utter professionalism that her voice never falters even as she narrates deeply moving episodes from her family history. These include her own adoption by June and Harold, and sadly, the latter’s battle with – and ultimately, passing from – dementia.

The book ends with a brief epilogue, in which Jill brings us up to date from 2017, when the book was first published, with June’s current whereabouts. What goes unmentioned is that in early 2018, the Royal Warrant was removed (who holds it now, I could not ascertain). It can only be assumed that One was not too pleased, though it is not obvious to me why: Mrs. Kenton is without fail deeply respectful of the late Mrs. Windsor, and right from the book’s start, makes it clear that readers hoping to find in its pages titillating details about the majestic bosom are bound for disappointment. She faithfully delivers on her promise that the Crown’s cleavage shall remain unmentionable. The warrant’s revocation may paradoxically have boosted the book’s sales by causing a tsunami of lingering speculation in the lingerie world about the reason for the royal ire, but I did not see (or rather hear) anything for EIIR to be piqued about. June’s choice of title is thus not only brilliant, but also prescient – five stars for “Storm in a D Cup”!

An Invitation to History

This is a beautiful story about the life of June Kenton and her role in creating not only a wonderful family but also the history of the company her and her family developed. There are so many anecdotes throughout the book as well as personal heart aches which make her story so relatable.

The story is more relatable to me since I’ve known Junes children, David and Jill since they were teens. Hearing their story as well as their family history was great. Jill is the narrator of the book and does an amazing job telling the story. It almost fell as if she was telling her own story.

I highly recommend this book. It was also my first audible book. I am now hooked on listening to books.