Anne Sebba
Grace under Pressure
Flappers: Six Women of a Dangerous Generation
By Judith Mackrell
Macmillan 456pp £20 order from our bookshop
What exactly is a flapper? According to Zelda Fitzgerald, possibly the most vibrant and troubled of the six women in this book, ‘Flappers are brave and gay and beautiful.’ She said she hoped her daughter would be a flapper rather than a genius. Interviewed by an American reporter about her attitudes to modern women, Zelda commented, ‘I like the jazz generation, and hope my daughter’s generation will be jazzier. I think a woman gets more happiness out of being gay … than out of a career that calls for hard work, intellectual pessimism and loneliness.’
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