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The Queen of Whale Cay
 
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The Queen of Whale Cay (Hardcover)

by Kate Summerscale (Author)
3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (16 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Hardcover: 224 pages
  • Publisher: Fourth Estate (7 Aug 1997)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 1857023609
  • ISBN-13: 978-1857023602
  • Product Dimensions: 19.6 x 11.9 x 3.2 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 517,811 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

Guardian
'Her biography has all the ingredients for a delightfully subversive read.'
--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Synopsis
"Joe" Carstairs was born in London in 1900, the daughter of a Scottish colonel and an American heiress. She was educated in Connecticut and returned to Europe in 1916, to drive ambulances for the Women's Legion in France. She deserted her husband at the church door (marriage having been a prerequisite of her coming into her $4 million inheritance) and settled in England, where she took up motor-boat racing, winning many trophies, and established a boatyard at Cowes. In the 1930s Carstairs began to travel the world and eventually settled in the West Indies, where she bought the island of Whale Cay. There she developed a community and embarked on a programme of building which ranged from roads and schools to lighthouses and churches. She established hegemony over the 500 islanders, controlling not only their sexual morals but also their diet. In 1944 she built a deep-water harbour for use by the Royal Navy and then, without a word to the islanders, left for Florida, where she spent 40 years, having built war-craft, run a steamship freight-line, and set up a chain of airports. This biography aims to bring out of obscurity an extraordinary woman.

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Customer Reviews

16 Reviews
5 star:
 (6)
4 star:
 (5)
3 star:
 (3)
2 star:
 (2)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
3.9 out of 5 stars (16 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars scandalous, revealing, charming: a most unlikely life, 2 April 2000
By A Customer
This review is from: The Queen of Whale Cay (Paperback)
Born in the same year as the Queen Mother (1900) the life of Marion Barbara ("Joe") Carstairs took a very different course. A wonderful and beautifully written account of an outrageous twentieth century personality. The story moves from the battlefields of World War I to an island paradise in the Bahamas via the louche and fast society of London in the Twenties. Those met on the way include Tallulah Bankhead, Dolly Wilde, Marlene Dietrich and the Duke and Duchess of Windsor.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Wadd a wonderful read!, 8 Jul 2001
By A Customer
This review is from: The Queen of Whale Cay (Paperback)
An excellent story of weird, wonderful and quite frankly warped behaviour - an obsession with a doll dressed in flying jackets and matelot outfits could not be made up - a terrific yet terrifying account of maverick behaviour from a lady who just could not and would not conform!
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Stunning - and no review can do it justice , 6 Mar 2008
By moreredwine (Hampshire UK) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Queen of Whale Cay (Paperback)
What a wonderful delightful surprise this book has been. The Queen of Whale Cay - Joe - was brave, fiercely loyal and completely unique. There never has and never will be anyone like her. A packed life that inspires you to do more with your own. A loyalty to friends that reminds you to look up the ones you've left behind. This book brings Joe's past to life with scenes and stories you could never have imagined. And when I watch old movies from now on I'll recall the scenes from this book that were happening at the same time. For example Joe's encounters with Marlene Dietrich make me want to watch her (YouTube - that scene from Morocco 1930)movies again. For example scenes from World War 1 - Joe was driving an Ambulance aged just 16. For example Oscar Wildes niece - Dolly Wilde - Joe encountered her at 17 in Paris.

No review can do justice to the book. You'll just have to get it and see.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars A good, easy read
A fab biography of "Joe" Carstairs, a woman ahead of her time, and the people she lived her life with. Read more
Published 18 days ago by Gemmeg

4.0 out of 5 stars A Remarkable Character
This is an account of the life of Marion `Joe' Carstairs. If you have not heard of her you will not be alone, though you may have heard of the author: Kate Summerscale wrote the... Read more
Published 18 days ago by Holy Smoke

3.0 out of 5 stars Not bad for a first book, but not to be compared with 'Whicher' :
With such a wealth of material at one's hands, One would have to be a very bad writer indeed not to make a decent fist of The amazing life story of Marion 'Joe' Carstairs, one of... Read more
Published 29 days ago by A. Miles

3.0 out of 5 stars A fascinating story
'Joe' Carstairs life was undoubtedly rich (in more ways than one) and fascinating. Born into a wealthy but weird family she could have settled for a dull but easy life... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Mr. Nicholas R. Flynn

5.0 out of 5 stars before Mr Whicher got suspicious
There are already a number of reviews here of the reissue of Kate Summerscale's first book, a bewitching biography of one of the planet's better ideas, a woman who almost... Read more
Published 1 month ago by David Spanswick

3.0 out of 5 stars Dull account of a fascinating life
An account of the rather amazing Joe Carstairs, a woman living life on the edge at a time when women weren't expected to be racing motor boats or carving out their own lives,... Read more
Published 1 month ago by bluecougar25

4.0 out of 5 stars Stranger than fiction
A fascinating biography that reads like racy fiction - but is all true...

Kate Summerscale tells the fascinating story of heiress Marion Carstairs, Britain's fastest... Read more
Published 1 month ago by George Rodger

2.0 out of 5 stars Freakshow reading- bizarre and uncomfortable. Just like life!
Mmmm. Not sure about this one. A biography of a bizarre and rather unpleasant but interesting character, the book is not especially well-written or compelling. Read more
Published 1 month ago by M. W. Hatfield

2.0 out of 5 stars Afraid just couldn't get into it
I'm afraid this review cannot be to my usual standards because I simply couldn't manage to get into this book at all. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Stealth Reviewer

5.0 out of 5 stars More twists and turns and interest than an Agatha Christie novel
The synopsis for this book like this review does not really do justice to the lives and Times of this remarkable woman "Joe" Carstairs. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Fletch-a-sketch

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