Monday, September 21, 2015

Book Week - Sheila

Hey Team,

So it's been a little quiet here, it's not that I'm not thinking a lot of awesomeness to blog, I just keep having other boring things to do like working and washing and making food for people who seem to want dinner every night!

So I thought this week to get the proverbial ball on the move I'd share a book every day, because books!

Sheila by Robert Wainwright



I got this book ages ago and started reading it then I got distracted and it disappeared in a pile of competing titles - no one argues more than the book pile in our house! Sheila is the biography of a young Australian woman who set off to London with her mother for a holiday in March 1914 and ended up working in Egypt as a nurse for soldiers in the first world war. By the time the war was over she was married to an Earl and living the life of a socialite in London.

Sheila lived a remarkable life she was in the very tight circle of the princes, married three times to an earl, baron and prince. Her circles were full of names that would be familiar to any reader. (Like Cecil Beaton, Noel Coward, King George, Winston Churchill, Lord Mountbatten... it goes on) This biography is a fascinating view into the world of the rich, glamorous and famous during the first half of the 1900s.

If you like history particularly the stories of the names of the day and the descriptions of their social lives and parties then this will be a book you really enjoy. I couldn't get over how much bed hopping was considered quite normal at the time and the strong ties to America and the availability of the royals to those in their circles.

A great read about an Australian girl from a sheep station in NSW who made it into the circle of the day and made waves while she was there.

Details - Allen & Unwin April 2015, RRP $22.99

love you more than a perfectly stylish hat xxx