Book description
Radclyffe Hall was born in 1880 in Bournemouth in a house
inappropriately named 'Sunny Lawn'. Her mother drank gin in an attempt
to terminate the pregnancy, and her father fled the family home. At
the mercy of a violent mother and sexually abusive stepfather, her life
changed when at the age of eighteen she inherited her father's estate of
£100,000. She was free to travel, pursue women and write - most notably
The Well of Loneliness, her famous novel about 'congenital inverts',
which was declared 'inherently obscene' by the Home Secretary and
banned. In this brilliantly written, witty and satirical biography
Diana Souhami brings a fresh and irreverent eye to the life of this
intriguing and troubled woman. Radclyffe Hall was born in 1880 in
Bournemouth in a house inappropriately named 'Sunny Lawn'. Her mother
drank gin in an attempt to terminate the pregnancy, and her father fled
the family home. At the mercy of a violent mother and sexually abusive
stepfather, her life changed when at the age of eighteen she inherited
her father's estate of £100,000. She was free to travel, pursue women
and write - most notably The Well of Loneliness, her famous novel about
'congenital inverts', which was declared 'inherently obscene' by the
Home Secretary and banned. In this brilliantly written, witty and
satirical biography Diana Souhami brings a fresh and irreverent eye to
the life of this intriguing and troubled woman.
