Miss Ashley’s Odyssey is a voyage indeed. Told with frankness, humour, wit, and a total lack of self pity, April Ashley started out life as a boy in Liverpool, and became famous as Britain’s most glamorous sex change. It took courage and determination, and after I read this wonderful book I felt, well, if April Ashley can get through life, then so can the rest of us. In these pages, the book is beautifully written, you will meet anyone who was anybody in the haute bohemian world of the swinging 60’s. You will meet such diverse characters as Lady Diana Cooper, Little Gloria from Leeds, Viva King, Sarah Churchill, various titled folk and other folk who live by their wits and their talents. Thankfully Miss Ashley is not a snob and will chat to anyone, and the resulting narrative has such wit and style, it is almost an object lesson in how to present a life lived to the full.
April Ashley’s Odyssey
By Duncan Fallowell , 1982
