The Dragon Lady by Louisa Treger

July 30, 2019

The Dragon Lady by Louisa Treger

Lady Virginia Courtauld and her husband Stephen live on an estate called La Rochelle in Rhodesia in Africa (now part of Zimbabwe).  They are local philanthropists, building a theater and an art museum, as well as funding other local projects.  They believe that the Africans deserve to be treated the same as the whites and that they are capable of governing themselves.  They give their workers better food and higher wages than the other whites living in the area, start a school, and create a workshop where the local women can make and sell their traditional handcrafts.  Their views are controversial and cause conflicts with their white neighbors. 

The title of the book comes from a snake tattoo that Virginia Courtauld had on her leg from ankle to thigh, done while she was a teenager.  No firm reason is given as the reason for or the meaning behind the tattoo, but Virginia appears to have been a girl who liked to shock others.  She was divorced at a time when divorce was strictly taboo and made one an outcast from upper class society – although she yearned to be accepted by the upper crust, she was also a non-conformist who thought and acted as she pleased.

The frame of the novel follows the known biographical details of the Courtaulds’ lives, fleshed out with fiction.  Stephen Courtauld did indeed meet with Robert Mugabe at La Rochelle, and there was a little girl buried on the property whose ghost has been seen frequently.  Eltham Palace in Greenwich, the Courtaulds’ London home, was considered by many at the time to look more like Hollywood than London, but today is considered to be a masterpiece of the Art Deco style (and is on my list of places to visit on my next trip to London – I’ve been to Greenwich, and I probably saw the outside of the palace, but didn’t know its history at the time).  But many other details (like how the Jongy the lemur died and Virginia getting shot) are the author’s invention, which doesn’t damage the story.  This was an enjoyable read about a time and place not well known to many readers, and two actual people who lived fascinating lives.

                                                

Virginia Courtauld and her pet ring-tailed lemur

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an e-ARC in return for a review.