The Queen of Whale Cay: The Eccentric Story of 'Joe' Carstairs, Fastest Woman on Water - Softcover

Summerscale, Kate

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0140276130 ISBN 13: 9780140276138

Publisher: Penguin Books, 1999

Synopsis

A biography of Marion "Joe" Carstairs, the fastest female speedboat racer of the 'twenties, describes her life as a wealthy and eccentric lesbian and unofficial ruler on a Caribbean island

About this title

Review:

British eccentric Marion "Joe" Carstairs (1900-1993) was a world-class speedboat racer, heiress to the Standard Oil fortune, ruler of her own Caribbean Island ... and a cross-dressing lesbian. This biography places Carstairs's adventurous life in the context of 20th-century attitudes toward sexual deviance. During the permissive 1920s, Carstairs was able to flaunt her taste for women in the bohemian circles of London and Paris. She had affairs with numerous gals, including Natalie Barney and Dolly Wilde, Oscar's niece. When writing about Carstairs's boat races, the press of that roaring decade regarded her as a loveable tomboy. But as social norms shifted in the '30s, Carstairs's lifestyle was frowned upon. So she acquired Whale Cay, an island off the coast of Florida, turned it into her own version of paradise, became a gentleman farmer, and had an affair with Marlene Dietrich. Carstairs's most important and long-term relationship, though, was with Lord Tod Wadley, a stuffed leather doll. --Rebecca Brown

About the Author:

KATE SUMMERSCALE is the author of the number one bestselling The Suspicions of Mr Whicher, winner of the Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction 2008, a Richard & Judy Book Club pick and adapted into a major ITV drama. Her first book, the bestselling The Queen of Whale Cay, won a Somerset Maugham award and was shortlisted for the Whitbread biography award. Her most recent book is Mrs Robinson's Disgrace. Kate Summerscale has also judged various literary competitions including the Booker Prize. She lives in London.

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin Books
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0140276130
• ISBN 13: 9780140276138
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 256