The Surprising Life of Constance Spry

A riveting new biography - the first for thirty years - of the influential floral artist and founder of the Cordon Bleu cookery school

Fascinating … to be eagerly devoured’ Clarissa Dickson-Wright

Most people today, if they have heard of her, associate Constance Spry with the cookery book bearing her name. But Connie was much, much more than the author of a bestselling cookery book. She was deeply unconventional, extremely charming and very determined; Spry’s life took her from the back streets of Victorian Derby to running a hugely successful business as the florist of choice for the highest of high society, organizing the flowers for royal weddings and indeed for the Queen's coronation. She endured a violent first marriage, had a lesbian affair with a cross-dressing artist and was a pioneer for working women at a time when few women had careers. Sue Shephard tells her extraordinary story with insight, wit and flair.

'Riveting.’ Jane Fearnley-Whittingstall

‘Makes you fall utterly in love with its subject’ New York Times Magazine

‘Reveals with the greatest skill and sympathy an extraordinary person - complicated, driven, sometimes secretive but gifted and artistic to an nth degree. What a story.' Elizabeth Buchan

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