Sheilas by Eliza Reilly, Pan Macmillan

Women we ADMIRE

A bushranger, a pilot and a WWII spy are among the “badass women” Reilly musters for this whipcracking line-up of girls who shot through the glass ceiling. Over 120 years ago Sydney sheila Annette Kellerman was born with a debilitating bone condition and told she faced a life in a wheelchair. But her dad nailed down a doctor who suggested swimming. Out of her steel braces, the “Diving Venus” even performed her underwater ballet in front of royalty in London – the night the women’s one-piece swimming suit made its debut; her men’s bathers deemed too risqué. In America “She was all, ‘Dad, here’s an idea, what about I throw myself off some high things for money?’ as she dove out of a stone tower into raging seas.” Gorgeous hardback keepsake.