(Hachette, $35)Idina Sackville was born in 1893, the product of a cash-strapped aristocrat in search of money and a woman with pots of money in search of a title. While a certain lack of chin meant Idina would never be stunningly beautiful, she still stunned folk especially menfolk with her wit, charm, beautiful clothes and love of a good time. These attributes at first led her into the arms of a dashing and wealthy young cavalry officer, with whom she fell wildly in love. They married and swiftly had two sons, but WWI threw something of a spanner in the works; first, when the loved-up party animals were separated, and secondly, when Idina’s ability to kick up her heels with her husband while he was on leave was limited by a bout of illness. Whereupon he discovered the grass was greener on the other side of the fence. She then shocked high society by leaving him and her children and running away to Africa with a penniless wastrel.
What’s more, she did this more than once. In fact, she divorced no fewer than five times. Her affairs and party antics earned her the title of “High Priestess” of Kenya’s White oischief set, and she was the inspiration for writer Nancy oitford’s character The Bolter, hence the title of this book. Idina’s life story is fascinating and who better to bring it to light than Frances osbourne, who is actually her great-granddaughter. Not that Frances knew it until she was a teenager, when her mum ‘fessed up. Idina was “not a person to admire” Frances was told, but her swinging great-grandmother had already piqued her curiosity and I, for one, am thrilled it did because this is an exquisitely well-written true story of a spell-binding eccentric living in an era that quite boggles the mind.
Frances has done a supreme job of presenting her great-grandmother in a way that is often far from flattering and more than a little sad but sheds a nonetheless captivating light on post-Victorian high times and their eventual outcomes. Wildly recommended.
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