OUR NEW SOCIAL EDITOR AT LARGE THE MARCHIONESS OF BATH INVITES US INTO LONGLEAT HOUSE, HER FAMILY'S GRADE I-LISTED HOME

Gliding gracefully towards us in a showstopping green tailored suit, her Christian Louboutin heels clicking purposefully on the polished wooden floor, Emma Thynn, the Marchioness of Bath, greets us not with a formal handshake and glacial aristocratic gaze, but a warm hug and a beaming smile that lights up the room at her magnificent Elizabethan residence, Longleat House in Wiltshire.

- SALLY MORGAN

'I'm so excited. It's such an honour to be joining the HELLO! team'

“I’m so excited,” she says as she invites us for the first time into the newly decorated private apartment she shares with her husband Ceawlin, the 8th Marquess, and their two young sons John and Henry formally known as Viscount Weymouth and Lord Henry Thynn. "It's such an honour to be joining the amazing HELLO! team." For we can proudly reveal that Emma is our new social editor at large, and for the coming year will report on glamorous high-profile events, exhibitions, fashion shows and film festivals, to name but a few, in the international calendar.'

More than one million visitors flock to Longleat each year, drawn by its Venetian palace-inspired state rooms featuring Flemish tapestries and French furniture. In the private wing where Emma's family reside, treasures on view include antique cabinets (below left), clocks (below right) and Chinese urns (above)

When it comes to navigating society's upper echelons and being offered the hottest tickets in town, few are as well connected as Emma. From Ascot to Wimbledon, and Cannes to Fashion Week, her name is on every major guest list.

A MODERN MARCHIONESS And as the modern face of 21stcentury British aristocracy, Emma is unique. Pushing the boundaries with a series of firsts, she has blazed her own trail since marrying Ceawlin in 2013 and becoming Marchioness after the death of Alexander Thynn, the eccentric 7th Marquess, four years ago.

At a time when it shouldn't matter, much was made of the fact that Emma was the first mixed-heritage woman to become a Marchioness – her mother is former London socialite Suzanna McQuiston, her father Nigerian oil magnate Oladipo Jadesimi.