The Real Bohemians
On sale
4th March 2027
Price: £25
A beautifully written and dynamic new history of early twentieth century bohemian London that places female voices firmly at its centre
Early 20th century bohemian London was supposedly a home for outsiders, but accounts of it have been dominated by a set who were born insiders: the well-connected and wealthy Bloomsbury Group of Virginia Woolf, Duncan Grant, Vanessa Bell and Lytton Strachey. We have neglected another bohemia, that of artists, writers, models and performers who did not fit that rarefied world and are now often forgotten. And because the occupants of the fringes often found their way there because of their sex, this alternative Bohemia is a story of women.
In The Real Bohemians, Alicia Foster gives us the stories of fifteen women, some lost to us, others still well-known today but seen in the company of the forgotten. Through a series of ten meetings between them, against a backdrop of the haunts of bohemian London – cafes and bedsits, studios and galleries – the story of these women’s lives and the work they risked everything to make are unveiled.
Featuring:
* Georges Banks * Katherine Mansfield * Anne Estelle Rice * Jessica Dismorr * Helen Saunders * Katie Gliddon * Dora Carrington * Dolly Henry * Laura Knight * Anna Pavlova * Lydia Lopokova * Iris Tree * Nancy Cunard * Nina Hamnett * Dorelia McNeill
Early 20th century bohemian London was supposedly a home for outsiders, but accounts of it have been dominated by a set who were born insiders: the well-connected and wealthy Bloomsbury Group of Virginia Woolf, Duncan Grant, Vanessa Bell and Lytton Strachey. We have neglected another bohemia, that of artists, writers, models and performers who did not fit that rarefied world and are now often forgotten. And because the occupants of the fringes often found their way there because of their sex, this alternative Bohemia is a story of women.
In The Real Bohemians, Alicia Foster gives us the stories of fifteen women, some lost to us, others still well-known today but seen in the company of the forgotten. Through a series of ten meetings between them, against a backdrop of the haunts of bohemian London – cafes and bedsits, studios and galleries – the story of these women’s lives and the work they risked everything to make are unveiled.
Featuring:
* Georges Banks * Katherine Mansfield * Anne Estelle Rice * Jessica Dismorr * Helen Saunders * Katie Gliddon * Dora Carrington * Dolly Henry * Laura Knight * Anna Pavlova * Lydia Lopokova * Iris Tree * Nancy Cunard * Nina Hamnett * Dorelia McNeill