Rebecca West

Rebecca West, born Cissie Fairfield in Edinburgh in 1892, cut her way to fame first through her long relationship with H. G. Wells, then as an author (BLACK LAMB AND GREY FALCON, much referenced as the most comprehensive fictional work ever written about the Balkans; THE MEANING OF TREASON, and THE FOUNTAIN OVERFLOWS, a novel based on her childhood). She took her pen name from a line in Ibsen. Rebecca West died in 1983. Friends remember her as a woman of disturbing brilliance, magnetism and complication. Victoria Glendinning is a prize-winning biographer, journalist and reviewer. She has four sons and lives in London and Hertfordshire with her husband. "A book that triumphantly conveys not only what it felt like to be Rebecca, but also how and why people fell under her spell." (The Daily Telegraph)