Fiona Richmond is one of the most fascinating figures to emerge from 1970s Britain. She rode a horse naked through Piccadilly Circus, starred in some of the cheekiest shows the West End had ever seen, and became the glamorous face of Paul Raymond’s adult entertainment empire. Yet Fiona Richmond was not who most people expected her to be. Behind the bold headlines was a well-spoken vicar’s daughter with a quick wit, a genuine sense of humor, and a fierce desire to do things on her own terms. The story of Fiona Richmond is one of fun, fame, reinvention, and an unlikely quiet ending in the Caribbean sun.
Fiona Richmond’s Early Life in Norfolk
Fiona Richmond was born Julia Rosamund Harrison on 2 March 1945 in Hilborough, Norfolk. Her father was the local vicar, and the family home was a grand rectory that had once been the childhood home of Lord Nelson. The house had around twenty bedrooms and gave young Julia a comfortable, well-bred start in life. It was an upbringing that would later make the public image of Fiona Richmond all the more surprising and all the more entertaining.
She attended the local comprehensive school and showed early signs of the natural charm that Fiona Richmond would later be known for. At sixteen she was elected Hostess of the Year at a youth club, touring local clubs and being as charming as possible in the tallest heels her mother would allow. She qualified for university but had her sights set firmly on becoming an actress, a dream that would eventually lead her down a very different path.
The Young Julia Harrison and Her Famous Encounter
Before Fiona Richmond became a household name, the teenager who would become her had an extraordinary brush with stardom. She applied for a holiday job as a nanny and ended up working for actress Diane Cilento, who was then the girlfriend and later the wife of a rising young star named Sean Connery. It was a connection that brought the future Fiona Richmond into the orbit of one of the biggest names in cinema.
Connery was taken with the charming young Norfolk girl and later sent her two tickets to the premiere of his first James Bond film, Dr No. When she wanted to travel to Spain with the family as their nanny, it was Connery himself who insisted she go home and finish her schooling. He walked her to the station, put her on the train, and kissed her goodbye. She later said she nearly passed out. The next morning she was back at school studying for her A-levels, with no idea that one day she would be known across the country as Fiona Richmond.
From Bunny to Broadcaster: The Road to Fiona Richmond
After deciding against university and failing to win a place at RADA, Julia Harrison became an air hostess for British Caledonian and BOAC. A friend then suggested she try her luck at the Playboy Club. In 1967 being a Bunny was considered a glamorous and well-paid job, earning around £40 a week. She applied as a joke and was genuinely surprised when she passed. Despite scoring just eight percent in a mock maths exam, she was assigned as a croupier and served two years in the role.
She kept the Bunny uniform and later remembered the job with mixed feelings. The costumes were uncomfortable, the rules were strict, and the management treated the girls like schoolchildren. Still, it was good preparation for the performance world that Fiona Richmond was about to enter. Glamour, she often quipped, was always either uncomfortable or painful.
Fiona Richmond Meets Paul Raymond
The moment that truly launched Fiona Richmond came in 1970. While signing on the dole, she saw an advertisement for the Whitehall Theatre in London. A show called Pyjama Tops needed a swimmer. The interview was with Paul Raymond, the Liverpool-born publisher and club owner who was fast building his reputation as the King of Soho. He had already amassed an empire of strip clubs, theatres, and men’s magazines, and Fiona Richmond was about to become the most famous face associated with all of it.
The role required nude swimming in a transparent-sided pool on stage, but Fiona Richmond found the idea more amusing than alarming. It was a West End role, after all. Pyjama Tops was the first nude production to run in the West End, an English adaptation of the French farce Moumou, and it ran for five years. Fiona Richmond starred in it from 1970 to 1974 and also toured with the production in 1972. That one audition set the course for one of the most colorful careers in British entertainment history.
How Fiona Richmond Became Britain’s Greatest Sex Symbol
It was during these years that Julia Harrison officially became Fiona Richmond. She had considered the name Penelope, but Fiona sounded more polished, and Richmond had a satisfying echo of Raymond. Under the name Fiona Richmond, she became Britain’s most recognized sex symbol of the decade, frequently named alongside Mary Millington as one of the two defining British glamour stars of the seventies.
The appeal of Fiona Richmond was wrapped up in contradiction. The public was both shocked and delighted to discover that this bold and uninhibited glamour model was actually a well-spoken daughter of the clergy. Fiona Richmond appeared on television and radio, toured the country’s theatres, opened shops, and even met royalty. In 1974 she became a regular sex adviser on London Broadcasting Company radio, a role she approached with exactly the same blend of humor and frankness that defined everything she did.
Fiona Richmond and the Men Only Column
One of the key platforms that made Fiona Richmond famous was her long-running column in Paul Raymond’s Men Only magazine. In it, she described her supposed adventures with lovers around the world, and readers lapped it up. The writing was lively, funny, and deliberately provocative, and it built the name Fiona Richmond into a genuine cultural brand.
Her most talked-about assignment involved Manchester City manager Malcolm Allison. Fiona Richmond and Allison were photographed together, both naked, in the Crystal Palace players’ bath. The picture appeared in the News of the World and led to Allison being charged by the Football Association with bringing the game into disrepute. Fiona Richmond was unapologetic. She later said her photo shoots for Men Only were always tasteful and pretty, and that she had always felt she was the one doing the mocking, turning the lens back on the men who thought they were in charge.
The Stage Career of Fiona Richmond
Fiona Richmond was a fixture in Paul Raymond’s stage productions throughout the 1970s. In 1974 she starred at the newly reopened Windmill Theatre alongside John Inman in Let’s Get Laid, a sex sketch comedy written by Victor Spinetti. To promote the show, Fiona Richmond rode a horse through Piccadilly Circus dressed as Lady Godiva. The stunt led to her arrest for insulting behavior and a fine of £20. She told the story for years afterward with great delight, adding that the officer who arrested her later became a regular at her shows.
Fiona Richmond went on to appear opposite the celebrated drag performer Divine in the prison comedy Women Behind Bars at the Whitehall Theatre in 1977. She toured in a string of Raymond productions including Yes, We Have No Pyjamas, Wot! No Pyjamas!, and Space in My Pyjamas. By the early 1980s, Fiona Richmond had started to express publicly that she wanted to move beyond nude shows and take on more serious acting work.
Fiona Richmond on Film
The film career of Fiona Richmond began in 1971 when she appeared, billed as Amber Harrison, in Not Tonight, Darling. She had an uncredited role as a stripper in Barry McKenzie Holds His Own in 1974, and then took on larger parts in X-rated films including the psychological thriller Exposé in 1976 and the sex comedy Hardcore in 1977, which was also released under the title Frankly Fiona. That same year she appeared in the mistaken-identity comedy Let’s Get Laid.
As the decade turned, Fiona Richmond showed she could hold her own in bigger productions. She played the Queen of France in Mel Brooks’ comedy History of the World, Part I in 1981, and appeared as a KGB agent in the all-star black comedy Eat the Rich in 1987. She also recorded a spoken-word album called Frankly Fiona with Anthony Newley, adding erotic storytelling to his songs. The range of work that Fiona Richmond produced across film, stage, radio, and print remains genuinely impressive.
The Books of Fiona Richmond
Fiona Richmond was also a prolific author. She drew on her real and imagined experiences to produce a long shelf of books, beginning with Fiona in 1976 and followed by Story of I in 1978, On the Road by Fiona in 1979, and three titles in 1980: Galactic Girl, The Good, the Bad and the Beautiful, and Remember Paris. From Here to Virginity appeared in 1981 and In Depth in 1982. Her autobiography, Tell Tale Tits, was published in 1987. The books of Fiona Richmond were bestsellers in their day and confirmed her status as one of the most written-about women in Britain.
Fiona Richmond After the Spotlight
Fiona Richmond and Paul Raymond were a celebrated couple from 1970 to 1977, living together in a flat in Portman Square. He gave her a yellow Jaguar E-Type with the famous number plate FU2, and Fiona Richmond became a recognized figure around the West End behind its wheel. Despite his considerable wealth, she always worked and always kept her independence. When she eventually grew tired of the late nights and the lifestyle, she left, though she and Raymond remained on good terms for the rest of his life.
Fiona Richmond married television producer James Montgomery in 1983 and had a daughter named Tara. She left show business, ran a hotel in Hampshire for a time, and then divorced in 1998. She later met her partner Peter Pilbrow, a former pig farmer, and the two settled in Grenada in the Caribbean. There, Fiona Richmond reinvented herself once again, this time as a sculptress working with driftwood, and became president of a local charity called Gift Grenada. Living quietly under her real name Julia, she has built a life as far from Soho as it is possible to get.
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Conclusion
Fiona Richmond is far more than a collection of naughty headlines and cheeky posters. She was a determined, funny, and independent woman who created one of the most memorable personas in British popular culture, then walked away from it entirely on her own schedule. From a grand Norfolk rectory to the West End stage, from the pages of Men Only to a driftwood studio in the Caribbean, Fiona Richmond has lived a life full of surprises. She looks back on it all with a smile. And those who remember her from those bold and breezy years in 1970s Britain tend to do the same.
