When Anthony Ashley-Cooper, the 10th Earl of Shaftesbury went missing from his luxury hotel in Cannes on 5 November 2004, it inspired a press frenzy that exposed a frothy mix of glamour, vice, drink, drugs and fallen aristocracy. It revealed the life of the 66-year old earl – “Atty” to his friends – who held one of the most distinguished lineages in the country, but who had become an ageing, sex-obsessed adventurer, whose wayward life created passion and jealousy in his many lovers, and eventually a vicious rivalry that led to the Earl’s sudden death.