SHEILA

She wedded earls and barons, befriended literary figures and movie stars, bedded a future king, was feted by London and New York society for 40 years, and when she died was a Russian princess.

Born on a NSW sheep station, Sheila Chisholm, headstrong Sydney society beauty and great grand-daughter of an English soldier in the Third Fleet, was Australia's first home-grown princess but she might have been so much more – perhaps even Queen Sheila of England. Arriving in London as a young married woman, the world was at her feet – and she enjoyed it immensely. Edward, Prince of Wales, called her 'a divine woman', and as Lady Loughborough she conducted a clandestine affair with Bertie, the future George VI of England (Queen Elizabeth's father), whose father had to bribe him with the Duchy of York to reward him for giving her up. She subsequently became Lady Milbanke and ultimately ended her days as Princess Dimitri of Russia. She had torrid affairs with Rudolph Valentino and Prince Obolensky of Russia; she was a friend of Evelyn Waugh, Lord Beaverbrook, Wallis Simpson and Idina Sackville and she helped Woolworth's heiress Barbara Hutton renovate Winfield House, her mansion in Regent's Park which is now the American Embassy. She appeared in Ponds advertisements for cleansing cream under the headline Vivid, gay and utterly charming is Lovely Lady Milbanke and one of Cecil Beaton's famous photographs of her now hangs in the National Portrait Gallery. A story unknown until now, Sheila is a compelling, spellbinding story of a time and a place and an utterly fascinating, extraordinary woman. Robert Wainwright has been a journalist for 25 years. His career has ranged from politics to crime, always focussing on the people behind the major news of the day. He is the author of Rose: The unauthorised biography of Rose Hancock Porteous (2002), The Lost Boy (2004) and The Killing of Caroline Byrne (2009).