Sylvia, Queen Of The Headhunters
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.
‘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
Jaw-dropping . . . If you thought White Mischief the last word in English expatriate decadence, you haven't yet met Sylvia and the Brookes
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
A thorough, fascinating and rather giddying book . . . sensational
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
Amazing and hilarious
An incredible story
The kind of gift subject that biographers must dream of . . . Colourful anecdotes of eccentricity, lunacy and infidelity crowd every page
Juicily entertaining . . . an exceptional life, one to which Eade does rich justice
Eade has uncovered a mine of marvellous material and handles it all with consummate wit and style . . . a dazzling debut
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
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
A scrupulous researcher . . . [Eade] writes with panache
An enthralling study of an extraordinary woman
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
Richly entertaining