| The Bolter: Idina Sackville, the Woman Who Scandalised 1920's Society and Became White Mischief's Infamous Seductress |  | Author: Frances Osborne
Publisher: Virago Press (UK)
Category: Book
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Seller: greatbuybooks
Rating:  22 reviews
Sales Rank: 864,120
Format: Illustrated, Import
Media: Hardcover
Edition: illustrated edition
Pages: 310
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.5
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.4 x 1.3
ISBN: 1844084817
EAN: 9781844084814
ASIN: 1844084817
Publication Date: January 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
On Friday 25th May, 1934, a forty-one-year-old woman walked into the lobby of Claridge's Hotel to meet the nineteen-year-old son whose face she did not know. Fifteen years earlier, as the First World War ended, Idina Sackville shocked high society by leaving his multimillionaire father to run off to Africa with a near penniless man. An inspiration for Nancy Mitford's character The Bolter, painted by William Orpen, and photographed by Cecil Beaton, Sackville went on to divorce a total of five times, yet died with a picture of her first love by her bed. Her struggle to reinvent her life with each new marriage left one husband murdered and branded her the 'high priestess' of White Mischief's bed-hopping Happy Valley in Kenya. Sackville's life was so scandalous that it was kept a secret from her great-granddaughter Frances Osborne. Now, Osborne tells the moving tale of betrayal and heartbreak behind Sackville's road to scandal and return, painting a dazzling portrait of high society in the early twentieth century.
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 22
 Lady Idina Sackville's Exciting and Sad Life July 30, 2009
R. Hardy (Columbus, Mississippi USA)
21 out of 21 found this review helpful
"You don't want to be known as `the Bolter's granddaughter'," warned Frances Osborne's mother. Osborne was the Bolter's great-granddaughter, and the mother was worried about how people might have spoken about herself. The thirteen-year-old Osborne had come across a photograph of the ravishing Lady Idina Sackville, and wanted to know more, for the existence of the scandalous Idina was a dark family secret. "My mother was right to be cautious: Idina and her blackened reputation glistened before me. In an age of wicked women she had pushed the boundaries of behavior to extremes." And thus Osborne was set on years of research, looking into family troves of diaries and letters, as well as society newspaper stories, and conducting interviews of those who knew Idina. Now in _The Bolter_ (Knopf), she has given a biography of the highly-spirited, sad woman whom she never knew. It is sort of a family biographical exorcism, but the book stands well on its own, as a portrait of Idina as well as of the heady times which were her heyday. There is mischievous fun here, and great sadness as well, and the charming and flawed Idina could not have gotten a more sympathetic evaluation.
In 1913, Idina made what has to be considered a conventional marriage to Euan Wallace, a cavalry officer and a millionaire heir. They were blissfully rich, and at least initially were blissful in other ways. "Idina completed her introduction to sex: an activity for which she discovered she had a talent, but which she clearly found so intensely enjoyable that it rapidly became impossible for her to resist any opportunity for it." She was quickly pregnant, and bore Wallace two sons. The couple were busy with a social life in London, and building a mansion in Ayrshire. Then came World War I, and Wallace fought right through it. He did come home on leave, and the reunions were good, except that Idina was ill and could not keep up with Euan's socializing. He fell for another woman, and she determined she would not stand for that sort of abandonment without taking her own lovers. When she fell for Charles Gordon, Euan confronted her, insisting that she had to give up the affair or to divorce. She bolted with Gordon, and in so doing, abandoned her young sons, with whom she would have no contact until they were adults. Gordon was her introduction to British East Africa, later Kenya, where she would live on and off for the rest of her life. Her third marriage was to a sexual equal, Josslyn Hay, Earl of Erroll, who was eight years her junior. Both of them enjoyed having a variety of sexual partners and needed the variety. People who came to parties at their plantation could not just come for an evening; it was a trek to get there, so the gatherings went on for days. Guests could expect to find pajamas and a bottle of whiskey ready on their pillows on arrival. Joss, a teetotaler, filled everyone else's glass and Idina served as the mistress of ceremonies which included games of chance to determine who would bed whom for a particular night. Idina bore Joss her third and final child, a daughter, but he became devoted to another woman and the marriage ended. There were fourth and fifth marriages, and divorces. Idina was to have many other trials. She met both her sons when they were young men. She was charming to them, and they were generous toward her, and she was grateful. Euan died in 1940 of cancer, only 48 years old, and though they had not had contact in decades, she felt the loss. Both the sons with whom she had begun to share affection died during the Second World War. Josslyn Hay was murdered under scandalous circumstances. A reconciliation with the daughter who had been raised by an aunt was cut short by Idina's own death. She died of cancer at age 62, a portrait of Euan at her bedside.
In addition to giving a full picture of Idina's life, Osborne has skillfully described such things as the protocol of Edwardian England, British colonialism in Africa, the accepted standards for adultery, and the grounds for divorce. Idina became memorialized in fiction; she was the model for The Bolter in the novels of Nancy Mitford, and was the model for Iris Storm in Michael Arlen's novel _The Green Hat_. The real Bolter, Osborne shows, had a provocative, exuberant, and eventually sad life that defies imagination. It is good to have this heartfelt biography of the original, a woman who dreamed of a better life and worked to make it happen, and sadly failed. "Whenever she reinvented her life with a new husband," Osborne pointedly writes, "she believed that, this time round, she could make it happen. Yet that better life remained frustratingly out of reach."
Making sense of a decadent life June 20, 2009
FastFilm (Los Angeles)
38 out of 44 found this review helpful
Book review: The Bolter by Frances Osborne
[...]
The author's intelligent Youtube promo parallels the span of this fascinating book: modern sensibilities stretching the boundries of old guard traditional values, encompassing all with as much reason as abandon.
The book well answers our appalled collective gasp of- how could these real life characters act so?
Those of us who were adolescents or young adults in the 1960's will have no recourse but to identify with the decadent counter-culture within the times profiled in this book. Also, I myself have been to Kenya and understand firsthand its incredible sway.
For the rest, all material whether emotional or historical, no matter how exuberant or painful for subject or reader, is well explained within its context, in Osborne's eminently readable prose.
Thus the book is best for two types of readers: completists of the Happy Valley, Kenya goings on via James Fox' "White Mischief" or Errol Trzebinski's parallel tome, and everyone else in the world with an interest in social history of the first half of the 20th century via well-heeled (and occasionally just heels) Brits and Brit expats.
The Bolter March 14, 2009
H. P. Barclay (Nakuru, Kenya)
15 out of 16 found this review helpful
A most entertaining book, extremely well written and researched. The Bolter is the author's great grandmother, although she of course never met her and was only told about her when she was in her early teens. However she become fascinated with Dina's story and somehow has managed to find almost all the details of her life and some very good pictures, which she has made into this fascinating book. Dina was married five times and had three children. She came to live in Kenya after divorcing her first husband, and then spent most of the rest of her life there, living a very `racy' lifestyle, and entertaining her many friends to drink and drug fuelled weekends. She became known as the leader of the `Happy Valley' set, which was the valley where her farm was, in a mountainous area far from Nairobi.
As her story unfolds, one gets more and more sympathetic to Dina and her unusual lifestyle. She became very depressed as she approached middle-age with no close family ties, although she did start to get to know one of her sons just before he was killed and renewed her friendship with her married daughter. The final blow for her, which she never recovered from, was when her first husband and both her sons died within a short time of each other. She herself died about ten years later.
A riveting unputdownable book, especially if you know the country and the people there that are mentioned, as I do.
Oh, Great Grandma, and what sharp teeth you have... September 22, 2008
S. J. Koblentz (Columbus, OH United States)
13 out of 14 found this review helpful
Everything about this book is intrguing, from its topic and story to the relationship of the author to the woman that the book is about.
In The Bolter, author Frances Osborne tells the story of her great-grandmother, Lady Idina Sackville, a women who married privledge only to feel stiffled by it. Feeling trapped, she bolts (hence the title) the marriage and divorces her husband, agrees never to see her young sons again, and goes to Africa to live a Bohemian life style, ripe with intrigue, freewheeling sex and other adventures that a lady of good breeding may dream about, but would never entertain if she valued her family.
But thats what makes this such a juicy ride. Osborne's great grandmother is driven to lead a reckless wild life with few regrets. While she does eventually meet her young adult sons, the meeting is just that, not a reunion, but a bit of a reality check; it reminded me of one of those forced meetings between a child and one of their parents friends - forced pleasantries and uncomfortable interests, but its brilliantly written.
Of course one of the greatest ironies is that Osbourne is married to a Torrey Member of Parliament, and she's written a very torrid account of Sackville.
So this reviewer HIGHLY recommends this book
 The Bolter-Not for Everyone July 4, 2009
Suzanne Oberlin (marin county, CA.)
23 out of 28 found this review helpful
If one is a fan of British Upper Class society in the 1st half of the 20th c., this book will have appeal. It follows the life of a woman who constantly seeks love and permanence which eluded her in her youth. There are wonderful descriptions of Kenya during the British colonial period between 1920-1955. Having been written by a granddaughter who had access to diaries and letters, many acquaintances and dalliances are correctly named and described--juicy tidbits for those of us who enjoy it!
Showing reviews 1-5 of 22
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