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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1355 in Books
• Published on: 2008-12-29
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 336 pages

Review
'The Bolter is the real Idina's story told by her great-grand-daughter Frances Osborne. It whirls the reader through the London social scene during the First World War and the decadence of Kenya's Happy Valley via Idina's five marriages and innumerable love affairs. I loved it.' - Alice O'Keeffe, Amazon 'Passionate and headstrong, Lady Idina was determined to be free even if the cost was scandal and ruin. Frances Osborne has brilliantly captured not only one woman's life but an entire lost society.' - Amanda Foreman 'Rich, title, witty, beguiling, Lady Idina Sackville had all the gifts, except, perhaps, judgement. Frances Osborne has written an enthralling account of a dazzling, troubled, life.' - Julian Fellowes ** 'On the literary pages, the wife of current shadow chancellor George Osborne, Frances, stepped into the limelight, as her new book, The Bolter, attracted the most reviews' THE BOOKSELLER ** 'Truly interesting. Osborne paints an enthralling portrait of upper class English life just before, during and immediately after the Great War. Frivolous, rich, sexy, achingly fashionable ... Frances Osborne has probably made her peace at last.' Robert McCrum, OBSERVER ** 'The Bolter is a biographical treat' Kerry Fowler, GOOD HOUSEKEEPING ** 'Osborne is a graceful writer, excellent at evoking the atmosphere of London during the First World War and Happy Valley in the Twenties. Her judgement is pitch-perfect, never letting Idina off the hook but at the same time sympathetic towards her, and she skilfully captures the myriad twists and turns of a turbulent life.' Christopher Silvester, DAILY EXPRESS ** 'Frances Osborne has produced a racy romp underpinned by some impressive research. She understands the period and the world she describes.' Selina Hastings, SUNDAY TELEGRAPH ** 'Osborne is an imaginative scene painter... Idina wasn't admirable, but Osborne makes us sympathise with her.' Marianne Brace, INDEPENDENT ** 'An engaging book and a definitive final look back at those naughty people who, between the wars, took their bad behaviour off to Kenya and whose upper-class delinquency became gilded with unjustified glamour.' Alexandra Fuller, FINANCIAL TIMES ** 'A bewitching character brilliantly painted' EASY LIVING ** 'A superb portrait of an astonishing woman and her times.' WBQ ** 'Osborne has had, as you would expect a family member, unprecedented access to Sackville's diaries - and those of most of her husbands.' Kayt Turner, SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY

Julian Fellowes
'Rich, titled, witty, beguiling, Lady Idina Sackville had all the gifts, except, perhaps, judgement. Frances Osborne has written an enthralling account of a dazzling, troubled, life'

Amanda Foreman
'Passionate and headstrong, Lady Idina was determined to be free even if the cost was scandal and ruin. Frances Osborne has brilliantly captured not only one woman's life but an entire lost society'

Customer Reviews

Wonderful Biography of a Misunderstood Woman
Well I won't hold back on this... I loved this book. However I can understand why some people out there might not like it so much, but more of that later. The Bolter can be summed up pretty much by its full title `The Bolter: Idina Sackville - The Woman Who Scandalized 1920's Society and Became White Mischief's Infamous Seductress'. This book promises to be full of gossip and scandal whilst taking a look at just what was going on in the rich upper classes in the 1920's and 1930's. It does exactly what it promises on that front with some very insightful tales even of royalty. It also lifts the lid further on `The Happy Valley' (which I had no knowledge of prior to this book - but I have been looking up on the web like mad) in Africa where bed hopping, drug taking, suicide and murder along with attempted murder all took place.

These things were great, Frances Osborne makes a lot of affairs and bed hopping very easy to keep up with and digest. She also brings in some really interesting social history such as what could and couldn't constitute the rights for divorce and what counted as adultery. She looked at the women suffragettes which were something that Idina and her mother Muriel were very much involved with. It also looks at how war affected people not just in terms of rations but in terms of love and affairs of the heart. All this was wonderfully written and all over too quickly. However for me it was the background on Idina herself along with her childhood, parents and the society she grew up in and how they made her into the character which she became that I found so fascinating.

Yes she was a sexual predator in some ways, no she couldn't be faithful, married and divorced five times, loved to party and left her sons and husband but deep down her story is of struggle and tragedy and how people react to that. Plus she in historical terms as Frances (who is her great-granddaughter) finds, from her family alone regardless of society back in the day, is blamed for this and getting the real insight your opinion is changed. Her first marriage to her true love wasn't a happy one after the war and he ended up marrying his sister's best friend Barbie. Some of the names in this book are wonderful. If all the things that happened to her happened to most people they would have given up aged about 21. However Idina is incredibly strong and fights and pushes to get what she wants which you believe is actually a quite settled life just with lots of sex.

This book also did something that very few books tend to do nowadays (unless I am having trouble keeping up) which is to make notes. There are some wonderful quotes such as when Idina describes why she married one of her husbands `he had broad shoulders, a long attention span and an endless supply of handkerchiefs' and facts that I felt I wanted to chase up and learn more about. I also laughed and smiled quite a lot too thinking that anyone who loves the words and works of Nancy Mitford would be right at home with this. It does appear she very much borrowed from Idina and her real story for her own fiction. I also actually felt very solemn when the book ended and quite moved.

All in all a marvellous book which I would recommend to Mitford fans and particularly people who wouldn't normally pick up a non fiction novel

Interesting, but flawed
I eagerly picked up this book, ready to devour an era long passed, and indulge in all it's scandal and luxury, and maybe on that level, I wasn't disappointed. But I just felt that although the author clearly has a lovely style of writing, the book was more of her personal search of her family history, and this has been put before the need to retain the reader's interest.

I just didn't feel as though the actual version of events lived up to the title, or the blurb. I felt as though there was something missing, and at the end of the book, I wasn't left feeling as though I knew or understood either Idina or her contemporaries. I think the exploration of the characters reached only very shallow water, and the chronology was sometimes disjointed and clumsy.

Maybe I am being harsh, I don't know, but all in all whilst I did enjoy this book on some level, it wasn't as satisfying as I had hoped.

must read
I loved this book, lots of history, lots of scandle and lots of gossip and what a life she led too, if you love The Mitfords "Love in a cold climate" then you will LOVE this one too. enjoy.