Enid

Enid Lindeman stood almost six feet tall, with silver hair and flashing turquoise eyes. She 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, Enid Lindeman gallivanted through life accumulating four husbands and numerous lovers, her high-jinks dominating British gossip columns 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.

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., A gem of a biography., 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.", As social history Sheila Chisholm's life is fascinating... it's undeniably enjoyable to read of all that glitter and gold., A marvelously entertaining story that at times resembles a glossy television period drama.

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.