In 2007, I coaxed the now reclusive Victor Lownes (1928-2017) into meeting me for tea at Brown’s Hotel in Mayfair. He was the original business partner of the Playboy supremo Hugh Hefner, running Playboy’s lucrative British enterprises from 1964 until 1981.
Then nearing 80, Lownes still had a twinkle in his eye. He was formidably smooth: floppy