Laylah: The Life of Leila Waddell -Darren Francis

Professional violinist. Lover and muse to the infamous Aleister Crowley. Though Leila Waddell has become an iconic figure in twentieth century occultism, the precise details of her life are mostly obscure. From her early years in Australia to her career as an international touring musician, her role as paramour and inspiration to the wickedest man in the world, and finally her return to home shores and tragic early death, Laylah: The Life of Leila Waddell is the first and only biography of her to be published.

Darren Francis has provided a seminal work here. Thanks to the dismissive and derogatory account left of her by Aleister Crowley himself, Leila Waddell was condemned to an afterlife in the margins of his biographies. Like almost all the women - and men! - that were important to The Great Beast's life and work, he was characteristically disparaging of her, falsely referring to his oneti…