Desperado: The Untamed Life of Clare Sheridan

Clare Frewen was born in 1885 into what seemed the lap of luxury, raised by a glamorous socialite and a descendant of English and Irish gentry. After a marriage to Wilfrid, a descendant of the famed playwright Richard Brinsley Sheridan ended in tragedy, she embraced her independence – travelling to Russia in the wake of the revolution, becoming the first woman hired by the New York World, and honing her craft as a sculptor – with a sensational catalogue of subjects – including cousin Winston Churchill, H.G. Wells, Gladys Cooper, Mahatma Gandhi, Vladimir Lenin, Leon Trotsky, Herbert Henry Asquith, Charlie Chaplin, Benito Mussolini and composer Dimitri Shostakovich. Captivated by her fearlessness and talent, Clare attracted a remarkable coterie of lovers throughout her lifetime – from Russian revolutionaries to American millionaires, to Arab Shieks. Clare also became an acclaimed travel writer, memoirist, diarist, and novelist. As well creating over 100 works of art, she wrote 20 books, in addition to dozens of newspaper and magazine articles for The Times, the Daily Mail, The New York Herald, Boston Globe and others.