The Bolter
Idina Sackville - the 1920’s style icon and seductress said to have inspired Taylor Swift’s The Bolter
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Descripción editorial
Idina Sackville - the 1920's style icon and seductress who 'Taylor Swift fans think "The Bolter" could be inspired by' Bustle
In 1934 Idina Sackville met the son she had last seen fifteen years earlier when she shocked high society by running off to Africa with a near-penniless man, abandoning him, his brother and their father. So scandalous was Idina's life - she was said to have had 'lovers without number' - that it was kept a secret from her great-granddaughter, Frances Osborne. Now Osborne explores her moving tale of betrayal and heartbreak.
'A corker of a subject... probably inspired The Bolter in Nancy Mitford's The Pursuit of Love... A breakneck-paced, thoroughly diverting story' THE TIMES
'A tragic and deeply moving tale... far more gripping than any novel I have read for years' ANTONY BEEVOR
'Frances Osborne has brilliantly captured not only one woman's life but an entire lost society' AMANDA FOREMAN
'An enthralling account of a dazzling, troubled life' JULIAN FELLOWES
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Osborne's lively narrative brings Lady Idina Sackville (an inspiration for Nancy Mitford's character the Bolter) boldly to life, with a black lapdog named Satan at her side and a cigarette in her hand. Osborne (Lilla's Feast) portrays a desperately lonely woman who shocked Edwardian high society with relentless affairs and drug-fueled orgies. Idina's story unfolds in an intimate tone thanks to the author, her great-granddaughter, who only accidentally discovered the kinship in her youth with the media serialization of James Fox's White Mischief. Osborne makes generous use of sources and private family photos to add immediacy and depth to the portrait of a woman most often remembered as an amoral five-time divorc e: the author shows her hidden kindnesses at her carefully preserved Kenyan cattle ranch a refuge from the later destructive Kenyan massacres. Still, Osborne unflinchingly exposes Idina's flaws along with those of everyone else in the politely adulterous high society while ably couching them in the context of the tumultuous times in which Idina resolved to find happiness in all the wrong places. The text, most lyrical when describing the landscapes around Idina's African residences, proves that an adventurous spirit continues to run in this fascinating family. 66 photos,
