Select an option to add this to your cart
The item is not currently in stock but can be special ordered or pre-ordered.
The lives, loves, adventures and trailblazing musical careers of four extraordinary women from a stunning debut biographer.
*WINNER OF THE ROYAL PHILHARMONIC SOCIETY STORYTELLING AWARD*
*SHORTLISTED FOR THE SLIGHTLY FOXED BEST FIRST BIOGRAPHY PRIZE 2023*
The lives, loves, adventures and trailblazing musical careers of four extraordinary women from a stunning debut biographer.
'Fabulous.' Sunday Times 'A rare gift.' Financial Times 'Passionate . . . Vivid . . . Timely.' Telegraph 'Readable and inspiring.' Guardian 'Compelling . . . Ambitious . . . Poignant.' Spectator 'Magnificent.'Kate Mosse'Riveting.'Antonia Fraser'A breath of fresh air.'Kate Molleson'Fascinating.'Alexandra Harris'Wonderful.'Claire Tomalin'Splendid.'Miranda Seymour'Remarkable.'Fiona Maddocks'Pioneering.'Andrew Motion 'Brilliant'Helen Pankhurst
Ethel Smyth (b.1858):Famed for her operas, this trailblazing queer Victorian composer was a larger-than-life socialite, intrepid traveller and committed Suffragette.
Rebecca Clarke (b.1886):This talented violist and Pre-Raphaelite beauty was one of the first women ever hired by a professional orchestra, later celebrated for her modernist experimentation.
Dorothy Howell (b.1898):A prodigy who shot to fame at the 1919 Proms, her reputation as the 'English Strauss' never dented her modesty; on retirement, she tended Elgar's grave alone.
Doreen Carwithen (b.1922):One of Britain's first woman film composers who scored Elizabeth II's coronation film, her success hid a 20-year affair with her married composition tutor .
In their time, these women were celebrities. They composed some of the century's most popular music and pioneered creative careers; but today, they are ghostly presences, surviving only as muses and footnotes to male contemporaries like Elgar, Vaughan Williams and Britten - until now.
Leah Broad's magnificent group biography resurrects these forgotten voices, recounting lives of rebellion, heartbreak and ambition, and celebrating their musical masterpieces. Lighting up a panoramic sweep of British history over two World Wars, Quartet revolutionises the canon forever.
