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Sylvia, Queen Of The Headhunters

Paperback / ISBN-13: 9780753823811

Price: £10.99

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The biography of the last Ranee of Sarawak, born into the aristocracy as Sylvia Brett in 1885 and destined to become ‘Queen of the Headhunters’.

Jaw-dropping … If you thought White Mischief the last word in English expatriate decadence, you haven’t yet met Sylvia and the Brookes’ The Times

Sylvia Brooke was the consort of His Highness Sir Vyner Brooke, Rajah of Sarawak, the last in a bizarre dynasty of English despots who ruled their jungle kingdom on Borneo until 1946. The White Rajahs were long held up as model rulers, but the spectacularly eccentric behaviour of Ranee Sylvia – self-styled Queen of the Headhunters – changed everything. This is the compelling story of her part in their downfall.

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Reviews

Eade has uncovered a mine of marvellous material and handles it all with consummate wit and style . . . a dazzling debut
Hugh Massingberd, COUNTRY LIFE
Eade is eminently readable, with a detective's pertinacity at finding the clues to forgotten secrets and a raconteur's gift for sustaining his narrative interest . . . a rollicking good read
Richard Davenport-Hines, SUNDAY TELEGRAPH
In Philip Eade this 'most charming of despots' has met her match. He is a natural writer: percipient, sympathetic, amusing . . . those who have never heard of Sylvia Brooke are in for a treat
Michael Holroyd
A scrupulous researcher . . . [Eade] writes with panache
Sara Wheeler, DAILY TELEGRAPH
An enthralling study of an extraordinary woman
Joanna Lumley
The unbelievable story of the outlandish last Ranee of Sarawak was the most gripping biography of 2007; stylish, funny, poignant, crammed with eccentrics, it may yet be a slow-burn bestseller
Bartle Bull, PROSPECT</i>, Books of the Year
Richly entertaining
IRISH TIMES
Jaw-dropping . . . If you thought White Mischief the last word in English expatriate decadence, you haven't yet met Sylvia and the Brookes
THE TIMES
It's fantastic material. Well spotted, Eade. Does he do it justice? Yes . . . Alongside the complexities of colonial politics, Eade brings her loves and losses, her heights and depths, to poignant life. It's all here: the bonking, the boozing, the pathos and the bathos . . . This is a delightful book, and proof that truth is stranger than fiction
Ross Leckie, THE TIMES
A thorough, fascinating and rather giddying book . . . sensational
Lynne Truss, SUNDAY TIMES
Philip Eade's stylish narrative never flags, nor his command of humour and irony. It is an altogether memorable work, the first I hope of many
Kenneth Rose
Amazing and hilarious
Christopher Foyle, DAILY EXPRESS
An incredible story
DAILY MAIL
The kind of gift subject that biographers must dream of . . . Colourful anecdotes of eccentricity, lunacy and infidelity crowd every page
Christopher Hart, SUNDAY TIMES</i>, Books of the Year<i>
Juicily entertaining . . . an exceptional life, one to which Eade does rich justice
Miranda Seymour, MAIL ON SUNDAY