The Improbable Adventures of Miss Emily Soldene

'A vivid tale of a woman born for the stage, stardom and scandal' - Holly Kyte, author of Roaring Girls: The Forgotten Feminists of British History 'One of the most irrepressible women I've come across'- Jane Robinson, author of Ladies Can't Climb Ladders 'I rode on the stage in such style, that the men in front forgot I was a girl, and also forgot to laugh.' From humble beginnings with the threat of the workhouse looming, Emily Soldene rose to become a star of the London stage and a formidable impresario with her own opera company. The darling of theatreland, she later reinvented herself as a journalist and writer who scandalised the country with her outrageous memoir. Weaving through the grit and glamour of Victorian music halls and theatres, taking encounters with the Pre-Raphaelites and Charles Dickens in her stride, Emily became the toast of New York and ventured far off the beaten track to tour Australia and New Zealand. Batten paints a vibrant portrait of an almost forgotten star who trod the boards, travelled the globe and tore up the Victorian rule book.

Helen is a best-sellingnon-fiction writer who lives in London and works as a psychotherapist. After reading history at Cambridge, Helen studied journalism at Cardiff and worked in television, producing and directing documentaries for the BBC. Helen has had three non-fiction books published.