Heiress, Rebel, Vigilante, Bomber: The Extraordinary Life of Rose Dugdale

Description

The astonishing story of the English heiress who devoted her life to the IRA She grew up in a Chelsea townhouse and on a Devon estate. In 1958, she was presented to the Queen at Buckingham Palace as a debutante. At Oxford, she trained as an academic economist and had a love affair with a female professor (who was herself on the rebound from Iris Murdoch). At thirty, having earned her doctorate, she commenced giving her inheritance away to the poor. In 1972, the deadliest year of the Northern Irish Troubles, she travelled to Ireland and joined the IRA. Sean O'Driscoll's Heiress, Rebel, Vigilante, Bomber tells the astonishing story of Rose Dugdale, who went on to become a committed terrorist, participating in a major art heist and a bombing raid on a police station; who kept a pregnancy secret for nine months in prison and gave birth there; and who ended up at the heart of the IRA's bomb-making operation during its deadly final spasms in the 1990s. Heiress, Rebel, Vigilante, Bomber is both the page-turning biography of a remarkable woman and a groundbreaking account of the inner workings of a terrorist organization.

Sean O'Driscoll is a journalist and attorney based in Dublin. He is the author of The Accidental Spy, the bestselling true story of an American trucker who became an FBI spy within the IRA. His investigative journalism has appeared in the New York Times, the Guardian and the Irish Times. He previously worked as an immigration and criminal lawyer in New York and now works as a news editor at the Irish Daily Mail.

Fascinating . . . O'Driscoll's research is impressive -- Ben Macintyre * The Times * Riveting -- Roy Foster * TLS * Generous and well researched -- Rosa Lyster * LRB * An absorbing, well-researched and extremely well-written account of a life that almost defies belief -- David McCullagh * RTE * Superb . . . an even-handed and thrilling gallop through [Dugdale's] improbable life * Daily Telegraph *