Book description
Madame Rachel had everything: a Mayfair address, the title of
'purveyor to Her Majesty the Queen', a shop full of exotic, expensive
creams and potions. Her clientele were aristocratic, rich - and
gullible.
This is the true story of Madame Rachel who began life as a poor
fish fryer in a disease-ridden, grubby corner of Victorian London. She
ended up with a shop in New Bond Street, where her wealthy clients
came in their droves, lured by the promise of eternal beauty. What
they found there was a con-woman and fraudster who made a career out
of lies, treachery and the desperate hopes of women wanting to be
'beautiful for ever'.
Beautiful For Ever is a thrilling tale of love affairs,
scandal, blackmail, high-profile court cases, suicide and fraud, with
the extraordinary Madame Rachel right at the centre of it all.
Helen Rappaport read Russian Special Studies at Leeds University
and was an actress in TV and films before moving into publishing. She
worked as a freelance editor for academic publishers before becoming a
full time writer in 1998, specialising in Victorian social history and
the Russian Revolution. She is the author of No Place for Ladies:
The Untold Story of Women in the Crimean War, Ekaterinburg:
The Last Days of the Romanovs and Conspirators: Lenin in
Exile. Helen Rappaport lives in Oxford.
www. helenrappaport. com
