The tumultuous life of internationally renowned opera singer, and one of the first global celebrities, Dame Nellie Melba. Nellie Melba is remembered as a squarish, late middle-aged woman dressed in furs and large hats, an imperious Dame whose voice ruled the world for three decades and inspired a peach and raspberry dessert. But to succeed she had to battle social expectations and misogyny that would have preferred she stay a housewife in outback Queensland rather than parade herself on stage. She endured the violence of a bad marriage, was denied by scandal a true love with the would-be King of France and suffered the loss for more than decade of her only son, stolen by his angry, vengeful father. Despite these obstacles she built and maintained a career as an opera singer and businesswoman on three continents that made her one of the first international superstars. Award-winning biographer Robert Wainwright presents a very different portrait of this great diva, one which celebrates both her musical contributions and her rich and colourful personal life. "[A] rounded portrait...the Melba that emerges is not only a prodigious talent but a trailblazing, fiercely independent and determined woman." SYDNEY MORNING HERALD
From the bestselling author of Sheila comes the story of a bewitching Australian socialite who fascinated the world.
Enid Lindeman stood almost six feet tall, with silver hair and flashing turquoise eyes. The girl from Strathfield in Sydney stopped traffic in Manhattan, silenced gamblers in Monte Carlo and dared walk a pet cheetah on a diamond collar through Hyde Park in London.
In early twentieth-century society, when women were expected to be demure and obedient, the granddaughter of Hunter Valley wine pioneer Henry Lindeman waltzed through life to the beat of her own drum. 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 paid for by her winnings in a game of cards.
Enid captivated 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 tells the fascinating story of a life lived large on the world stage.
'Wainwright has revived a legend.' The Lady on Sheila
'. . . her beauty and her boldness shine through this fascinating tale.' Sydney Morning Herald on Sheila
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