Natalie and Romaine

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.

“'Souhami is an exceptionally witty and original biographer' Sunday Times.”

'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
Sunday Times

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.

Natalie Barney and Romaine Brooks were both rich, American and grandly lesbian. They met in Paris is 1915 and their tempestuous partnership lasted more than fifty years. Natalie, with her 'dazzling' Friday afternoon salons, aspired to make Paris 'the sapphic centre of the western world'. She published memoirs, poems and collections of aphorisms but her true passion was for seduction and love. Romaine had no interest in salon life and lived for herself and her painting. She had affairs with Ida Rubenstein and Gabriele D'Annunzio, but trusted no one except Natalie. In this vivid double biography, with its cast of extravagant characters: the courtesan Liane de Pougy, the poets Ren

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.

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