Beginning in 1953, when Leigh suffers a nervous breakdown, Where Madness Lies tells the moving story of the actress as she attempts to rebuild her life, salvage her career, and save her marriage.

Vivien Leigh was one of the greatest film and theatrical stars of the 1930s, '40s, and '50s. Her Oscar-winning performances in Gone With the Wind and A Streetcar Named Desire have cemented her status as an icon of Hollywood. From 1940 to 1960, Leigh was married to Sir Laurence Olivier, and together they were considered the royal couple of British theatre. Indeed, their romance and acting partnerships captured the imagination of the public around the world. Behind the scenes, however, Leigh's personal life was marred by manic depression that remained undiagnosed until 1953. Largely misunderstood and subjected to barbaric mistreatment at the hands of her doctors, she would also suffer the heartbreak of Olivier's infidelity. Contributing to her image as a tragic heroine, she would die at the age of fifty-three. Unlike previous biographies, Where Madness Lies begins in 1953 when Leigh suffered a nervous breakdown and was institutionalized. The tragic story unfolds as she tries to rebuild her life, salvage her career, and save her marriage. Featuring a wealth of unpublished material--including private correspondence--Lyndsy Spence reveals how this Hollywood luminary tragically fell victim to the draconian medical practices of the era.

The first biography in over 15 years of Maria Callas, and the first to portray her as a feminist icon rather than a bitchy diva

Call it 'charm', call it 'magic', call it 'Maria' --Dorle Soria

The new face of Maria Callas ... is even more dramatic than how History (with a capital H) has already painted it. --Vogue Italia

Maria Callas (1923-77) was the greatest opera diva of all time. Despite a career that remains unmatched by any prima donna, much of her life was overshadowed by her fiery relationship with Aristotle Onassis, who broke her heart when he left her for Jacqueline Kennedy, and her legendary tantrums on and off the stage.

However, little is known about the woman behind the diva. She was a girl brought up between New York and Greece, who was forced to sing by her emotionally abusive mother and who left her family behind in Greece for an international career. Feted by royalty and Hollywood stars, she fought sexism to rise to the top, but there was one thing she wanted but could not have - a happy private life.

In Cast a Diva, Lyndsy Spence draws on previously unseen documents to reveal the raw, tragic story of a true icon.

'Touched with genius' - The Spectator

What's the best way to get the upper hand in an argument solely through letters? How should you liven up a dull night at Buckingham Palace? When, exactly, is the best time to run away to the Spanish Civil War? The Mitford sisters - Nancy, Pamela, Diana, Unity, Jessica and Deborah - knew the answers to all these questions and more.

Perhaps the most remarkable family of the mid-twentieth century, their exciting and varied lives, from communist to fascist to aristocrat, mean that there's no problem they can't solve.

Celebrate all things Mitford with the debut of The Mitford Society's annual, packed with articles, features, personal recollections, stories, interviews and the fictional Mitford themed newspaper from Mitfords Eve. Contributors include: The Lady's astrologer Victor Olliver; The Evelyn Waugh Society; Complete Works of Evelyn Waugh; Meredith Whitford; David Platzer; Deanna Raybourn; Judith Kinghorn; The Fertile Fact; Charles Twigger; Stephen Kennedy; Debbie Catling; Rebecca McWattie; Chiara Martinelli; Meems Ellenberg; Emma Reilly; Terence Towles Canote; Natalie Tilbury; Mark Beynon; David Ronneburg; Willie Orr; The Amy Grimehouse; Tessa Arlen; Benjamin Treuhaft.

The Mitford Society is pleased to present its second annual with contributions from Meems Ellenberg; Lyndsy Spence; Nathan Duncan; Katherine Longhi; May Tatel-Scott; Michelle Morrisette; Jane Thynne; Georgina Tranter; William Cross; Robert Wainwright; Lucinda Gosling; Eleanor Doughty; Kim Place-Gateau; Lee Galston; Chiara Martinelli; David Ronneburg; Evangeline Holland; Andrew Budgell; Joseph Dumas

Celebrate all things Mitford with stories, features and essays on the Mitford girls and their contemporaries, including the much loved Mitford Tease. With contributions from: Meems Ellenberg; Lyndsy Spence; Kathy Hillwig; Jeffrey Manley; Tessa Arlen; Kerin Freeman; Louisa Treger; Kim Place-Gateau; Virginie Pronovost; Leia Clancy; Robert Wainwright; Terence Towles Canote; Anna Thomasson; Sonia Purnell; and Barbara Leaming.

The plot could have been inspired by Evelyn Waugh's Vile Bodies, but unlike Waugh's novel--which parodies the era of the Bright Young Things--this is a real-life story of scandal, greed, corruption, and promiscuity at the heart of 1920s and '30s high society, focusing on the wily, willful socialite Doris Delevingne and her doomed relationship with the gossip columnist Valentine Browne, Viscount Castlerosse. Marrying each other in pursuit of the finer things in life, their unlikely union was tempestuous from the off, rocked by affairs (with a whole host of society figures, including Cecil Beaton, Diana Mitford, and Winston Churchill, amongst others) on both sides, and degenerated into one of London's bitterest, and most talked about, divorce battles. In this compelling new book, Lyndsy Spence follows the rise and fall of their relationship, exploring their decadent society lives in revelatory detail and offering new insight into some of the mid 20th century's most prominent figures.

The Mitford Society is pleased to present its fifth annual with contributions from Meems Ellenberg, Kathy Hillwig, Robert Morton, Gail Louw, Chiara Martinelli, William Cross, May Tatel-Scott, Ella Kay, Terence Towles Canote, Kim Place-Gateau, Meredith Whitford, and Lyndsy Spence

The shocking true story behind A Very British Scandal, starring Claire Foy and Paul Bettany

MARGARET, DUCHESS OF ARGYLL was an international celebrity in her youth, adored and observed by millions. But in 1963 the 11th Duke of Argyll shocked the country when he alleged that his adulterous wife had slept with over eighty men behind his back. As his evidence, he produced a set of sexually explicit Polaroid photographs and explosive love letters, helping to win his divorce and affecting Margaret's life forever. On the verge of financial destitution, she fell from grace and was abandoned by most of her friends prior to her death in a nursing home in Pimlico in 1993. In this meticulously researched biography Lyndsy Spence tells a tragic story of the life and downfall of this fascinatingly complex woman, and shows how she fell victim to a cruel husband, harsh social mores and an unforgiving class.

Celebrate all things Mitford with stories, features and essays on the Mitford girls and their contemporaries, including the much loved Mitford Tease. With contributions from: Meems Ellenberg; Lyndsy Spence; Kathy Hillwig; Annabel Abbs; Terence Towles Canote; Alan Stafford; Claire Meadows; Kim Place-Gateau; Michelle Morrissette; Chiara Martinelli The content includes: Friends and Frenemies: A Mitford Tease; The Muse: Diana Mitford and Helleu; A Very Mitford Reading; Lucia Joyce: The Pioneering Modern Dancer That Almost Was; Pam and Betje: An Enduring Friendship; Beaten by Beaton: Doris Delevingne and her Love Affair with Cecil Beaton; The Company She Kept: Unity Mitford and her Friends;Too Naked for the Nazis: How Betty Knox Went From Chorus Line to Front Line; Lady Bridget Parsons: The Pursuit of Love by; Literary Ladies: The Fictional Worlds of Nancy Mitford, Elizabeth Jane Howard and Lucia Berlin; The Big Tease: How Olivia de Havilland Fell for Nancy Mitford; In The Footsteps of the Mitfords; Debo and Cake: A Royal Friendship; Lady Irene Curzon: A Dim View of Diana; Private Enemy Number One; Camelot in the Derbyshire Dales; The President and The Duchess; Only the Sister: Angela du Maurier; Nancy Mitford and Harold Acton: A Life-long Friendship

HISTORY has seen many women make their mark by defying the limits set against them, stepping out of the boxes they had been put in and forging their own path. She Who Dares is a collection of pen portraits of ten extraordinary women who dared to defy the norm: Mariga Guinness, Enid Lindeman, Sylvia Ashley, Joan Wyndham, Venetia Montagu, Irene Curzon, Sylvia Brooke, Sydney Redesdale, Hazel Lavery and Jean Massereene. They were often witnesses to or participants in key events in the last 100 years, including abdications, the rise of fascism and two world wars. Their lives were dramatic and vibrant, usually involving tangled webs of relationships, heartbreak and scandal. From influencing politics to being accused of witchcraft, from glamorous society beauties to nonconformist tom-boys, each of these women deserves to be described as trailblazing.

THE plot could have been inspired by Evelyn Waugh's Vile Bodies, but unlike Waugh's novel - which parodies the era of the 'Bright Young Things' - The Mistress of Mayfair is a real-life story of scandal, greed, corruption and promiscuity at the heart of 1920s and '30s high society, focusing on the wily, wilful socialite Doris Delevingne and her doomed relationship with the gossip columnist Valentine Browne, Viscount Castlerosse. Marrying each other in pursuit of the finer things in life, their unlikely union was tempestuous from the off, rocked by affairs (with a whole host of society figures, including Cecil Beaton, Diana Mitford and Winston Churchill, to name but a few) on both sides, and eventually degenerated into one of London's bitterest, and most talked about, divorce battles.In The Mistress of Mayfair, Lyndsy Spence follows the rise and fall of their relationship, exploring their decadent society lives in revelatory detail and offering new insight into some of the mid-twentieth century's most prominent figures.