Katharine Clifton is a character based on British socialite Dorothy Clayton.Dorothy Mary Durrant was born in Leverstock Green, Hertfordshire, on 26 September 1906, the daughter of Arthur Durrant, vicar of Leverstock Green, who baptised her at Holy Trinity Church. Because of the family's rank, she was not allowed to attend the village school, and was tutored by a governess.On 29 February 1932, she married Robert Clayton East-Clayton, 9th Baronet of Marden and 5th Baronet of Hall Place Maidenhead, in a London registry office. The union blessed by her father, the newlyweds traveled to Egypt for an expedition to the Gilf Kebir, where East-Clayton hoped to locate the fabled Three Valleys of Zarzura.In The English Patient, Geoffrey Clifton (based on East-Clayton) is an operative for British Intelligence posing as a tourist who, with his wife Katharine, joins L