Heavily tipped for major literary prizes, Thurman's biography of Colette is a vivid portrait of the author of the erotically reckless Claudine novels. Colette bared her breast to raucous applause in the French music-hall and became a celebrity of the lesbian demimonde. While building a reputation for hugely popular fiction, drama, memoir, critcism and scandal, Colette became the Baroness de Jouvenal, the wife of Paris's most infuential (and sexually charismatic) political journalist.