Description
Book SynopsisEnid Lindeman stopped traffic in Manhattan, silenced gamblers in Monte Carlo and walked her pet cheetah through Hyde Park on a diamond collar. In early twentieth-century society, where women were expected to be demure and obedient, she gallivanted through life accumulating four husbands and numerous lovers, her high-jinks fascinating British gossip columnists during the inter-war years.
She drove an ambulance in World War I and hid escaped Allied airmen behind enemy lines in World War II, played bridge with Somerset Maugham and entertained Hollywood royalty in the world's most expensive private home on the Riviera, allegedly won in a game of cards. Enid bedazzled men with her beauty, outlived four husbands - two shipping magnates, a war hero and a larger-than-life Irish Earl - spent two great fortunes and earned the nickname 'Lady Killmore'. From Sydney to New York, London to Paris and Cairo to Kenya, Robert Wainwright's biography restores the remarkable Enid to thrilling, vivid life.
Trade ReviewMy jaw kept dropping as I devoured Robert Wainwright's
wonderfully racy biography, full of comedy and tragedy and populated by some of the most dissolute and eccentric aristocrats of the 20th century. -- Ysenda Maxtone Graham * Daily Mail *
A
gem of a biography. * The Lady *
Enid's story is
dazzling and uplifting, and she certainly lived up to her code: "Never be afraid, never be jealous, and never complain when you are ill." -- Christopher Silvester * Spears *
As social history Sheila Chisholm's life is fascinating... it's undeniably enjoyable to read of all that glitter and gold. -- Selina Hastings * The Spectator on SHEILA *
A marvelously entertaining story that at times resembles a glossy television period drama. * Daily Express, on SHEILA *
A sensational look at how a country girl became a city socialite... a rip-roaring biography. * Marie Claire, on SHEILA *
The charm of Wainwright's biography is that he makes us see what an engaging, admirable and sometimes heroic quality it is to be a life-enhancer like Sheila. -- Jane Shilling * Daily Mail on SHEILA *
Sparkling... an eminently readable and lively account of a woman who, in many ways, epitomised the glamour and style of the Jazz Age. * Country Life, on SHEILA *
Nothing short of impressive... Wainwright has revived a legend. * The Lady, on SHEILA *
A seductively antipodean Auntie Mame. * The Times, on SHEILA *
Table of Contents1: Cawarra 2: An independent spirit 3: Letter from America 4: A birth and a death 5: Europe bound 6: The transformation 7: Caviar Cavendish 8: The company of men 9: A father and a secret 10: Marmaduke 11: 'He laid the world at my feet' 12: Champagny lordy 13: A jungle romance 14: Crashing the gilded halls 15: The sting 16: An ultimatum 17: La Fiorentina 18: Looking-glass world 19: Riviera refugees 20: Resistance 21: Where there's a will . . . 22: The fairy queen of Lees Place 23: The storekeeper's daughter 24: The excessively large gentleman 25: The touch of death 26: The newsprint knight 27: The waiting game 28: A lie laid bare 29: From the rubble 30: Australia 31: 'Did I really kill them all?' 32: The unflappable hostess 33: Baron of Waterpark 34: A new adventure beckons 35: The racing game 36: Home
