The Radical DIVINE

Don't let the Man Ray portraits and excessive bangles trick you: Nancy Cunard was nobody's fool.

Yes, Nancy Cunard was a rich girl. Her father was the heir to the Cunard Line shipping fortune, and her mother Maud, who later changed her name to Emerald, was one of London’s best-known hostesses. Nancy grew up with every advantage, but that isn’t what makes her fascinating. Instead, it was the way she chose to live her life—among an army of artists, writers, agitators, and rabble-rousers, many of whom she dated—that captivated generations of admirers. Her habit of putting her money where her mouth was, supporting human rights and political freedom in Europe and America alike, has become her enduring legacy. In Anne de Courcy’s new biography, Magnificent Rebel: Nancy Cunard in Jazz Age Paris, Cunarad’s hyinks and heroics are explored, in a book that tells the story of a complicated and compelling woman who lived life definitively and became one of the original renegade hetresses.

In August 1928 Nancy Cunard and Louis Aragon went to Venice. Although neither of them realized it, this heralded the end of their affair. For Nancy Venice was a natural destination. All through the 1920s, it was to Venice that the ultra-fashionable of Europe’s beau monde flocked in late summer and autumn. The Riviera did not overtake it until the following decade.) The railway network across Europe was growing and improving; even Paris trains, chaotic until the mid-’20s, were now reliable, and the Rome Express as well as the Simplon Orient connected Paris with La Serenissima, both featuring luxurious sleeping cars and restaurants.