Description
Enid 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.
About the Author
Robert Wainwright has worked as a journalist for 30 years and is the author of thirteen books, including Sheila and The Maverick Mountaineer, which won The Times Biography of the Year prize at the British Sports Book Awards in 2017. He lives in London.
Reviews
My 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 *
Book Information
ISBN 9781911630852
Author Robert Wainwright
Format Paperback
Page Count 304
Imprint Allen & Unwin
Publisher Atlantic Books
Weight(grams) 359g
Dimensions(mm) 198mm * 129mm * 26mm