Alice Keppel and her daughter Violet Trefusis where both, in their ways, lefendary lovers. Mrs Keppel mistress of Edward VII and Great-Grandmother to Camilla Parker Bowles, was the acceptable face at her command - charm, determination, money to repress her love affair with Vita Sackville.

Mrs Keppel and Her Daughter

Biographies & Memoirs

SOUHAMI, Diana

Arts & Literature

Flamingo

Biography, Gay & Lesbian Studies, Sexual Studies

Gluck, 1895-1978: Her Biography

New York University Press

Traces the life of the American expatriate writer, and looks at her long relationship with Alice B. Toklas

Gertrude and Alice

History

Pandora Pr

"Twentieth century literature is Gertrude Stein," or at least so thought Gertrude Stein. The sentiment was shared by Alice B. Toklas--her longtime companion--and few others. Stein and Toklas met in 1907 in Paris and famously shared their lives from that day forth, souls in perfect complement--two magnificently eccentric and idiosyncratic women who became a legendary entity. They were photographed by Man Ray and Cecil Beaton, painted and feted by Picasso, and visited by writers such as Hemingway, Fitzgerald, and Eliot. Theirs is a fascinating story, and they have found a wonderful and oddly sympathetic chronicler in Diana Souhami, whose book The Trials of Radclyffe Hall met with critical acclaim, and who proves the perfect foil to the "Steins." Her own touch of genius is to barely consider Gertrude's grand oeuvre, sparing the rod to an already spoilt child and freeing her readership from the unpalatable fare she generally served up (by contrast, Alice was a dedicated and talented cook).
 Literary success came late to Stein: she was 57 when The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas was published. After Stein's death in 1946, Toklas became the classic devoted author's widow, until her own death, just short of her 90th birthday. She was buried alongside Stein in Paris's Père Lachaise cemetery, though her inscription is on the back of the tombstone, as ever behind her lover. Souhami's two lives, refreshingly stripped of biographical dead wood, positively crackle with high-powered gossip and bristle with bitchy anecdotes, though her laconic touch is never asleep to touching cadences and wonderful absurdities. As a writer, a "literary cubist" who once tried to give up nouns, Stein is more to be admired than respected. As a life force, a mover and shaker, and as a partner to Toklas, she was massively successful. Their couple's life together was their greatest creation, and it's done justice by the talented Souhami's glorious account. Gertrude and Alice would have hated it. --David Vincent, Amazon.co.uk

Community & Culture

Rivers Oram Pr

From the acclaimed biographer of Gertrude and Alice--the revealing, gossipy biography of the relationship between Greta Garbo and Cecil Beaton and their unconventional loves and obsessions.

Greta and Cecil

HarperOne

"This dual biography reveals, as never before, the secret life and the extraordinary relationship of Hollywood's legendary pair: Greta Garbo and Cecil Beaton, the celebrated Hollywood photographer who immortalized her image. With provocative details about their personal lives and a subtle focus on their work, Diana Souhami divulges the secrets of Greta and Cecil's unconventional loves and obsessions. It is a compelling tale of a strange romance where boundaries merge between image and reality, fact and fantasy, male and female, and art and life." "Their ardent affair, Garbo's discreet liaisons with the women she loved, and Beaton's charismatic yet emotionally distraught personality are brought to life in Diana Souhami's hallmark style. Photographs, letters, and a wealth of new research reveal the obsessions, true desires, and secrets of Hollywood behind closed doors."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Arts & Photography

Individual Artists

HarperSanFrancisco

Nominated for a Lambda literary award, this incisive biography draws on memoirs, letters, published writings, and other sources to examine the relationship between Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas. Reprint.

Harpercollins

Piracy and betrayal frame the epic story of solitary endurance that inspired Daniel Defoe's classic novel. Who was the real Robinson Crusoe? And what did he really experience during his solitary stay on a remote island in the Pacific? Diana Souhami's revelatory account of Alexander Selkirk's adventures on the high seas and dry land leads us to the answers to both these questions, and explores the reality behind the romance of privateering on the high seas. Born to a poor Scottish family, Selkirk signed on with an ill-fated quest to sack the famous Manila galleon, one of the richest prizes on the southern seas. After a series of misfortunes and disagreements among the crew, Selkirk was put ashore on an island three hundred miles west of South America, where he spent four years learning to survive with little more than his bare hands. Acclaimed biographer Diana Souhami evokes all the strangeness and wonder of his story and interprets the haze created by three centuries of literature and legend. The result is a brilliantly lucid and lyrical recovery and discovery of a forgotten man and his unforgettable experience.

Selkirk's Island: The True and Strange Adventures of the Real Robinson Crusoe

Historical

Houghton, mifflin, harcourt

A fascinating account of piracy, betrayal, and raw survival on the high seas and dry land, Selkirk's Island rediscovers the amazing tale of an eighteenth-century legend. Born a poor Scotsman, Alexander Selkirk signed with William Dampier, a pirate who was as famous for his self-promotion as for his naval success, on an ill-fated quest to pillage the famous Manila galleon. After a series of scuffles with the captain, Selkirk was put ashore on an island three hundred miles west of South America. Alone and with little more than the clothes on his back, Selkirk spent four long years learning to survive. Drawing on Selkirk's own testimony, that of his rescuers and fellow crewmen, and petitions from two women who each claimed to be his wife, celebrated biographer Diana Souhami uncovers the truth behind the strangeness and wonder of a forgotten man and his unforgettable experience.

Mariner Books

Greta And Cecil

RANDOM HOUSE UK

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by SOUHAMI, Diana. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by SOUHAMI, Diana

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by SOUHAMI, Diana. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Mrs Keppel and Her Daughter

Gluck, 1895-1978: Her Biography

Gertrude and Alice

Gertrude and Alice

Greta and Cecil

Greta and Cecil

Gertrude and Alice

Selkirk's Island: The True and Strange Adventures of the Real Robinson Crusoe

Selkirk's Island: The True and Strange Adventures of the Real Robinson Crusoe

Greta And Cecil