The last days of Leda Grey
By: Essie Fox
Publisher: Orion; Orion (an Imprint of The Orion Publishing Group Ltd ); Orion Publishing Group, Limited
Published: 2013
Place of publication: London
Language: eng
Number of pages: 279
ISBN-13: 9781409146254
Subjects: Man-woman relationships; Fiction; Actresses; Recluses; Silent films
Description: During the oppressive heat wave of 1976 a young journalist, Ed Peters, finds an Edwardian photograph in a junk shop in the seaside town of Brightland. It shows an alluring, dark-haired girl, an actress whose name was Leda Grey. Enchanted by the image, Ed learns Leda Grey is still living - now a recluse in a decaying cliff-top house she once shared with a man named Charles Beauvois, a director of early silent film. As Beauvois's muse and lover, Leda often starred in scenes where stage magic and trick photography were used to astonishing effect. But, while playing a cursed Egyptian queen, the fantasies captured on celluloid were echoed in reality, leaving Leda abandoned and alone for more than half a century - until the secrets of her past result in a shocking climax, more haunting than any to be in found in the silent films of Charles Beauvois.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and filmography.