A Life By Design: The art and lives of Florence Broadhurst

(Paperback)

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Late in the afternoon of 16 October 1977, seventy-eight year-old Florence Broadhurst was brutally murdered. Her killer was never found.

The mystery surrounding Florence's death is in keeping with the elegant artifice of her life. Born in rural Australia, Florence soon decided Queensland was too small a stage. She travelled the world, changing her name and business as she went--a performing arts academy in Shanghai, a fashion salon in London and a husband or two until finally, in 1949, she returned to Australia. This time Broadhurst claimed to be an English woman escaping post-war London for the sunshine of the 'promised land'.

1959 saw her drawing on images she had gathered from her travels to create a flourishing business, Australian (Hand Printed) Wallpapers. By the time of her death Florence Broadhurst was a successful socialite--and a wealthy woman. But who was she, this generous, ferociously autocratic and evasive woman In A Life by Design we get a glimpse of the woman behind the hand-printed brocades and mysterious life.

Author Bio

Formerly the editor-in-chief of Indesign magazine and website, Siobhan O'Brien regularly contributes to a number of publications including The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, POL Oxygen, Vogue Living, Marie Claire and Australian Style.

Siobhan is a full time writer and lives on the South Coast with her husband Greg Duncan Powell (co-author of Drink Drank Drunk) and their baby daughter Evelyn May. This is her second book.