The Queen of Whale Cay

by Kate Summerscale and Kate Somerscale

Book Overview

'Joe' Carstairs was born in London in 1900, the daughter of a Scottish colonel and an American heiress. Educated in Connecticut, she returned to Europe in 1916 and drove ambulances for the Women's... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0670880183
• ISBN13: 9780670880188
• Release Date: May 1998
• Publisher: Viking Books
• Length: 241 Pages
• Weight: 0.77 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 4.8" x 7.8"

Customer Reviews

Buy this now, it's delightful.

I saw this slim volume in the store and was fascinated by the picture on the cover - a woman dressed as a man with a little battered doll on her shoulder - "what in the world is this?" So, I started to read. What a surprise. This is the story of Marion "Joe" Carstairs, a Standard Oil heiress, a champion speed boat driver, friend to the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, an unrepentant lesbian, owner of the Caribbean isalnd Whale Cay, and the constant companion of Lord Todd Wadley (yes, a funny little doll). This is one of the most immediately engaging books I've ever read. What a character she was, and what a life she led. "The Queen of Whale Cay" is an absolute charmer from start to finish. Looking for a little slice of forgotten history to while a way some time? This is the book for you.

AMAZING, EXTRAORDINARY AND FASCINATING

Nonconformist is an understatement. Eccentric isn't outre enough. Over-the-top words do not adequately describe Marion "Joe" Carstairs. She was a breakneck ambulance driver in World War I France, a world record-holding speedboat racer, the supreme ruler of her own Bahamian island, and pal to notables such as the Duchess of Windsor, Tallulah Bankhead, and Marlene Dietrich. Assigned to write an obituary of "Joe" Carstairs for the London Daily Telegraph, Kate Summerscale soon became fascinated by the woman who held sway in the 1920's as heiress to the Standard Oil fortune. This singular individual wore men's clothing meticulously tailored for her on Saville Row, favored female lovers, was tenaciously devoted to a small leather doll whom she christened Lord Tod Wadley, and managed to thumb her nose at almost every convention. As Ms. Summerscale unearthed more and more amazing information about her extraordinary subject, she determined to carry her findings far beyond a terse death notice. The result is The Queen Of Whale Cay, a buoyant, highly readable biography that became a London Times bestseller and nominee for the Whitbread Biography of the Year Prize. Estranged from her parents and disliked by a step-father, young "Joe" was sent to boarding school in America. Of this time her diary only records, "Left family aged 11." At the age of 16 she drove ambulances in France, where "Paris was heavily shelled....whole sides of houses fell down and people lay bleeding in the streets." Returning to London after the war, "replenished, brimming with vigour and ambition," "Joe" and some friends opened a chauffeuring service, and took on "any driving work, far and near." Galvanized by machines and speed, in 1925 Joe used her wealth "to commission the best motorboat money could buy." She was a daredevil on water, competing in races in Britain, Cannes and Detroit, where she vied with the famous Gar Wood. Yet, racing was not enough. She sought even greater challenges by leaving England in 1934 to rule and reside on Whale Cay, the Bahamian island she purchased for $40,000. Upon arriving she found the only inhabitants were a black couple who tended the lighthouse. "Joe asked them whether they lit the beacon every night, and they replied, to her amusement, "Only when the weather's good." She worked alongside laborers to lay a road from one end of the island to another. A store was built, and a large hole dug then filled with blocks of ice for refrigeration. Her home, the Great House, was constructed with the help of 300 men. It was a "sturdy Spanish villa, white, with red tiles..." From there she had dominion over a colony of 500 Bahamians, and entertained friends from throughout the world. During the 1960's, as Bahamians became increasingly independent, the atmosphere on Whale Cay changed, and "Joe" retreated to Miami. In 1975 she sold the island for approximately 1 million dollars. Three years later, deciding she'd had enough of women, s

A small book that introduces someone larger than life.

Marion "Joe" Carstairs is someone impossible to forget once you've been properly introduced and this book is a fine introduction to her fascinating life. Heiress, racing-boat enthusiast, owner and lord of her own island fiefdom, Ms. Carstairs is brought to life through excellent research and exposition. A woman of great eccentricity, great talent, and great generosity, she amazes the reader with her boldly- lived existence and her determination never to deviate from her own principles, no matter who thinks what of them. Kate Summerscale has done a masterful job of putting many small and sometimes obscure pieces together to create a whole that is larger than the sum -- which, she admirably demonstrates, is what "Joe" Carstairs was all about. THE QUEEN OF WHALE CAY is both reportorial and whimsical, striking the right balance between the exterior world in which Ms. Carstairs moved about and an interior world which she held dearly secret from everyone except a little, foot-high male doll. In the hands of a clumsy writer, Ms. Carstairs' life could have been trotted out as mere burlesque, a novel diversion inviting smirks and ridicule. In the capable hands of Ms. Summerscale, however, the exuberant life of this wonderfully different woman shines. Marion "Joe" Carstairs would not have wanted her biography written at all, but if it had to happen, one suspects she would have been pleased with THE QUEEN OF WHALE CAY.

The tale of a person whose great escape was her own self.

"Joe" Carstairs created herself from scratch (and a Standard Oil fortune). And what a self it was; she even invested half of it in the person of her engaging boy-doll, Lord Tod Wadley, who ought to have gotten equal billing. The subtitle mentions that Carstairs was "the fastest woman on water". Fast she certainly was, and not necessarily in the cheap sense. This forward energy got her record-breaking boats, an island kingdom, and her own way. A scrappily thought-provoking trip into the world of a true original.

Couldn't put it down

An interesting tale of a very eccentric woman. Wouldn't you want to rule an island? Or better yet, fancy yourself the kind of ego that would need to rule your world. Truly fascinating. It makes you think about all the great life stories that never get told. At least this on didn't get away.