The Bolter
Summary (from the publisher): Some say she was “the Bolter” of Nancy Mitford’s novel The Pursuit of Love. She “played” Iris Storm in Michael Arlen’s celebrated novel about fashionable London’s lost generation, The Green Hat, and Greta Garbo played her in A Woman of Affairs, the movie made from Arlen’s book. She was painted by Orpen; photographed by Beaton; she was the model for Molyneaux’s slinky wraparound dresses that became the look for the age—the Jazz Age.
Though not conventionally beautiful (she had a “shot-away chin”), Idina Sackville dazzled men and women alike, and made a habit of marrying whenever she fell in love—five husbands in all and lovers without number.
Hers was the age of bolters, and Idina was the most celebrated of them all.
Her father was the eighth Earl De La Warr. In a society that valued the antiquity of families and their money, hers was as old as a British family could be (eight hundred years earlier they had followed William the Conqueror from Normandy and been given enough land to live on forever . . . another ancestor, Lord De La Warr, rescued the starving Jamestown colonists in 1610, became governor of Virginia, and gave his name to the state of Delaware). Her mother’s money came from “trade”; Idina’s maternal grandfather had employed more men (85,000) than the British army and built one third of the world’s railroads.
Idina’s first husband was a dazzling cavalry officer, one of the youngest, richest, and best-looking of the available bachelors, with “two million in cash.” They had a seven-story pied-à-terre on Connaught Place overlooking Marble Arch and Hyde Park, as well as three estates in Scotland. Idina had everything in place for a magnificent life, until the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand caused the newlyweds’ world—the world they’d assumed would last forever—to collapse in less than a year.
Like Mitford’s Bolter, young Idina Sackville left her husband and children. But in truth it was her husband who wrecked their marriage, making Idina more a boltee than a bolter. Soon she found a lover of her own—the first of many—and plunged into a Jazz Age haze of morphine. She became a full-blown flapper, driving about London in her Hispano-Suiza, and pursing the boundaries of behavior to the breaking point. British society may have adored eccentrics whose differences celebrated the values they cherished, but it did not embrace those who upset the order of things. And in 1918, just after the Armistice was signed, Idina Sackville bolted from her life in England and, setting out with her second husband, headed for Mombasa, in search of new adventure.
Frances Osborne deftly tells the tale of her great-grandmother using Idina’s never-before-seen letters; the diaries of Idina’s first husband, Euan Wallace; and stories from family members. Osborne follows Idina from the champagne breakfasts and thé dansants of lost-generation England to the foothills of Kenya’s Aberdare mountains and the wild abandon of her role in Kenya’s disintegration postwar upper-class life. A parade of lovers, a murdered husband, chaos everywhere—as her madcap world of excess darkened and crumbled around her.
Though not conventionally beautiful (she had a “shot-away chin”), Idina Sackville dazzled men and women alike, and made a habit of marrying whenever she fell in love—five husbands in all and lovers without number.
Hers was the age of bolters, and Idina was the most celebrated of them all.
Her father was the eighth Earl De La Warr. In a society that valued the antiquity of families and their money, hers was as old as a British family could be (eight hundred years earlier they had followed William the Conqueror from Normandy and been given enough land to live on forever . . . another ancestor, Lord De La Warr, rescued the starving Jamestown colonists in 1610, became governor of Virginia, and gave his name to the state of Delaware). Her mother’s money came from “trade”; Idina’s maternal grandfather had employed more men (85,000) than the British army and built one third of the world’s railroads.
Idina’s first husband was a dazzling cavalry officer, one of the youngest, richest, and best-looking of the available bachelors, with “two million in cash.” They had a seven-story pied-à-terre on Connaught Place overlooking Marble Arch and Hyde Park, as well as three estates in Scotland. Idina had everything in place for a magnificent life, until the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand caused the newlyweds’ world—the world they’d assumed would last forever—to collapse in less than a year.
Like Mitford’s Bolter, young Idina Sackville left her husband and children. But in truth it was her husband who wrecked their marriage, making Idina more a boltee than a bolter. Soon she found a lover of her own—the first of many—and plunged into a Jazz Age haze of morphine. She became a full-blown flapper, driving about London in her Hispano-Suiza, and pursing the boundaries of behavior to the breaking point. British society may have adored eccentrics whose differences celebrated the values they cherished, but it did not embrace those who upset the order of things. And in 1918, just after the Armistice was signed, Idina Sackville bolted from her life in England and, setting out with her second husband, headed for Mombasa, in search of new adventure.
Frances Osborne deftly tells the tale of her great-grandmother using Idina’s never-before-seen letters; the diaries of Idina’s first husband, Euan Wallace; and stories from family members. Osborne follows Idina from the champagne breakfasts and thé dansants of lost-generation England to the foothills of Kenya’s Aberdare mountains and the wild abandon of her role in Kenya’s disintegration postwar upper-class life. A parade of lovers, a murdered husband, chaos everywhere—as her madcap world of excess darkened and crumbled around her.
Review: This biography details the life of the infamous Idina Sackville who was well-known for her five marriages - and five divorces, taking a string of lovers, and constantly being the subject of novels and gossip columns. Although Idina was born in 1893 into an old and privileged family, her life became unusual and the subject of gossip early on, when her father left her mother for a cancan dancer. Idina herself grew up and made a socially advantageous marriage to Euan Wallace and they seemed to have had a happy marriage, full of social events and extravagance. Yet the outbreak of WWI put a strain on their marriage and caused Euan's eye to wander to the younger, unmarried friends of Idina's younger sister.
In the eyes of the world, Idina then made the unforgiveable choice to leave her philandering husband and her two small sons, who she would not see again until they were both grown men. Idina bolted to Kenya and her second husband. And then a third, and a fourth, and a fifth. Each time, Idina became disillusioned, usually by her husband's infidelity. One of her five husbands actually left her rather than the other way around. On her deathbed, Idina openly regretted her choice to leave her first husband, and requested that her daughter (who was actually the child of her third husband and had never met Euan) name her son after him.
Although Idina was certainly imperfect, it does seem like much of her poor reputation - at least in regard to her tendency to leave husbands - was not deserved. Not a single one of her husbands remained faithful to her, and many of them openly slept with her friends and would leave her behind in favor of spending time with them. On the other hand, Idina didn't hesitate to also hop outside of the marital bed once it became clear that her husband was unfaithful. And she certainly fairly earned her reputation for debauchery; one of her favorite party games in Kenya consisted of locking all the bedrooms to the house, with Idina in possession of al the keys. "She spread these out on a table and with a roll of dice, the turn of a card, the blow of a feather across a sheet stretched between trembling hands, the keys were allocated and each guest would win a partner for the night" (155). Of course, part of her motivation for such naughty games was her then husband's tendency to get bored and stray from her. In other words, Idina wouldn't hesitate to do anything in attempting to keep her husband's love.
As her notoriety and many marriages indicate, Idina was a captivating person, capable of immense charm. She reportedly "lit up a room when she entered it" and "lived totally in the present" (11). And she "always imposed civilization in the most contradictory of circumstances, produced ice out of a thermos bottle, so that we could have cold drinks with our lunch in the jungle" (11). "She was a delight to her friends" and "was preposterously - and secretly - kind" (11). Her downfall, it seems, is to have a deep need to be loved, and to never fail in her belief that her next love would be the one to last.
Written by Idina's great-granddaughter, this biography presents a seemingly honest and unbiased account, although I do wish a more detailed background of Idina's family and childhood had been given. More time is spent on the breakdown of her first marriage than her early life. After a glamorous whirlwind of a life, Idina had a sad final years, marred by the death of two of her previous husbands, both of her sons, her best friend, and a poor relationship with a daughter who disapproved of her, and a long battle with cancer. A fascinating look at a woman whose life was glamorous enough to be fiction, and indeed often did appear in fiction, immortalized by Nancy Mitford and others.
Stars: 4
Comments
Post a Comment