Natalie and Romaine: The Lives and Loves of Natalie Barney and Romaine Brooks

Description

Natalie Barney,'the wild girl of Cincinnati', and Romaine Brooks were both rich, American and grandly lesbian. They met in Paris in 1915 and their tempestuous affair lasted more than fifty years. By the end of their lives together, Natalie and Romaine had entertained, slept with, fallen in love with, tutored or tortured a range of figures including Gertrude Stein, Colette, Edith Sitwell, Gabriele d'Annunzio and the ballerina Ida Rubinstein. But among this tumult there was an enduring and loving relationship that supported a liberating spirit of culture, style and candour. In this vivid double biography, Souhami writes with complexity and skill, drawing the reader into a different world and capturing for ever her subjects' extraordinary lives.

Diana Souhami is the author of Selkirk's Island (winner of the Whitbread Biography award), Coconut Chaos, The Trials of Radclyffe Hall (shortlisted for the James Tait Black Prize for Biography and winner of the US Lambda Literary Award), the bestselling Mrs Keppel and Her Daughter (also winner of the Lambda Literary Award and a New York Times 'Notable Book of the Year'). Her latest book is Murder at Wrotham Hill. She lives in London and Devon.

'A wonderful evocation of an era and of a relationship frightening in both its intensity and its bleakness' Guardian. * Guardian * 'Pages are crammed with descriptions of exotic characters, their extravagances and eccentricities, the lilies, the pearls, the velvet-lined rooms...' Selina Hastings, Sunday Telegraph. * Sunday Telegraph * 'Souhami is an exceptionally witty and original biographer' Sunday Times. * Sunday Times *