Pamela Norris
Sex and Cars
The Bugatti Queen: In Search of A Motor-Racing Legend
By Miranda Seymour
Simon & Schuster 301pp £15.99
EVEN IF YOU have never thrilled to the drone of powerful cars jockeying for position on a racetrack, Miranda Seymour's biography of the daring female driver Hellé Nice will have you riveted to your seat. The Bugatti Queen offers a gripping account of motor racing in Europe and America in the Thirties. It also has the charm and fascination of a fairy tale, being the story of a country bumpkin who transformed herself into a glamorous and much courted star. There was. however, more than a hint of hubris in the meteoric rise of the woman affectionately known as 'Hellish Nice' to her British fans. Her downfall was shocking and irrevocable, and Seymour's account of her final years is as compelling as the history of her triumphs.
Hellé Nice's beginnings were anything but auspicious. She was born in 1900 as Mariette Delangle, the third surviving child of a country postmaster. A bright and energetic girl, she was something of a changeling in a family characterised by reticence and gloom. Her childhood was over- shadowed by her father's
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
Twitter Feed
When @djbduncan notices the text for a literary jigsaw puzzle had been written by a former colleague, his head spins. A wild surmise. Are jigsaws REF-able?
Dennis Duncan - The W Factor
Dennis Duncan: The W Factor
literaryreview.co.uk
In an effort to scold drinkers, Victorian temperance societies furiously marked every drinking establishment with a red X on city maps. It was a spectacular case of propaganda backfiring.
@foxtosser explores the history of drink maps
Edward Brooke-Hitching - From Beer Street to Gin Lane
Edward Brooke-Hitching: From Beer Street to Gin Lane - Drink Maps in Victorian Britain by Kris Butler
literaryreview.co.uk
How did a workers’ insurance agent who died of tuberculosis at the age of forty become a global literary icon?
@MortenHoiJensen on Kafka's metamorphosis
Morten Høi Jensen - Paranoid Humanoid
Morten Høi Jensen: Paranoid Humanoid - Metamorphoses: In Search of Franz Kafka by Karolina Watroba; Kafka: Making o...
literaryreview.co.uk