Colonel Barker's Monstrous Regiment: A Tale of Female Husbandry - Hardcover

Collis, Rose

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1860498434 ISBN 13: 9781860498435

Publisher: Virago, 2001

Synopsis

On April 15, 1929, a few months after Radclyffe Hall's THE WELL OF LONELINESS was booed, banned and burned, a trial concluded at the Old Bailey with the sentencing of Colonel Victor Barker to nine months imprisonment. For Colonel Barker was, in fact, a woman.

Six years earlier as Victor Barker, Valerie Lilias Arhelt Smith had married Elfrida Hayward in St Peters Church, Brighton.

Her trial which became one of the most scandalous news stories of the decade led to her imprisonment. But on her release she once again assumed life as a man and her life thereafter went from tragedy to fame and back to tragedy again. This is her story.

About this title

Review:

A meticulously researched biography ... cool, precise prose ... extraordinary story (GAY TIMES)

This entertaining romp would have made an appealing novel; the fact that it is a true story makes it yet more compelling (THE GOOD BOOK GUIDE)

Book Description:

* The true story of a woman who adopted numerous male aliases, who married and had children and became one of the most notorious Man-Women of the early twentieth century

About this edition

• Publisher: Virago
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 1860498434
• ISBN 13: 9781860498435
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 320