Patrick O'Connor
A Swift, Vivid Genius
Florence Mills: Harlem Jazz Queen
By Bill Egan
The Scarecrow Press 368pp £22.95 order from our bookshop
When Florence Mills died in 1927, there was a public outpouring of grief that few performers have inspired. Over 50,000 people f3ed past her coffin at the Seventh Avenue ‘funeral church’, before a service at the Mother Zion African Methodist Episcopal Church on 136th Street in New York. The pavements of Harlem were packed with a crowd estimated at 200,000. One of the musicians in the band following the hearse collapsed and died of a heart attack. Hubert Fauntleroy Julian, a famous aviator nicknamed The Black Eagle, flew his plane low over the street, and, as the cort6ge moved towards Woodlawn Cemetery, he released a shower of rose petals.
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
'Thirkell was a product of her time and her class. For her there are no sacred cows, barring those that win ribbons at the Barchester Agricultural.'
The novelist Angela Thirkell is due a revival, says Patricia T O'Conner (£).
https://literaryreview.co.uk/good-gad
'Only in Britain, perhaps, could spy chiefs – conventionally viewed as masters of subterfuge – be so highly regarded as ethical guides.'
https://literaryreview.co.uk/the-spy-who-taught-me
In this month's Bookends, @AdamCSDouglas looks at the curious life of Henry Labouchere: a friend of Bram Stoker, 'loose cannon', and architect of the law that outlawed homosexual activity in Britain.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/a-gross-indecency