Rebecca West's wide-ranging career as a novelist, journalist, travel and history writer and biographer made her one of the most feted and feared women of her day. With access to her vast archive of letters, diaries and journals, Carl Rollyson has interviewed her friends and family. He discovers how Cicily Fairfield became the audacious Rebecca West, producing pieces such as Black Lamb and Grey Falcon. In a life of extremes she was viewed as a feminist, an evil mother, an anti-Communist and was made a Dame before her death in 1983.