Madame Tussaud

Kate Berridge's Madame Tussaud: A Life in Wax "celebrates a great pioneer of mass-market illusion, whose illusions eventually included herself."*

Millions have visited the museums that bear her name, yet few know much about Madame Tussaud. A celebrated artist, she had both a ringside seat at and a cameo role in the French Revolution. A victim and survivor of one of the most tumultuous times in history, this intelligent, pragmatic businesswoman has also had an indelible impact on contemporary culture, planting the seed of our obsession with celebrity.


Kate Berridge tells this fascinating woman's complete story for the first time, drawing upon a wealth of sources, including Tussaud's memoirs and historical archives. It is a grand-scale success story, revealing how with sheer graft and grit a woman born in 1761 to an eighteen-year-old cook overcame extraordinary reversals of fortune to build the first and most enduring worldwide brand identified simply by reference to its founder's name: Madame Tussaud's.

"A good story, like Berridge's biography, is a blessing." —Miami Herald
"A rousing good read . . . [Berridge] presents us with a thorough understanding of the beginnings of popular culture." —Vancouver Sun
"Fascinating. . . . A vividly recreated history of an extreme time and the unusually determined woman who capitalized so effectively on it." —Globe and Mail
"Spectacular and spellbinding. . . . Thoughtful, original, never condescending, erudite, and packed with vivid and sometimes horrifying detail, it is a model of how cultural history should be written." —*Sunday Times (London)