The stories of the Goddess, the Concubine, the Virgin, the Enigma and the Icon.
The BEAUTY QUEENS focuses on the lives of five of the most captivatingly beautiful Queens the world has ever seen. From 1290 BC to 1997AD, over 3000 years and 5000 miles separate this dazzling group which encompasses an extraordinary diversity of feminine archetypes – the Goddess, the Concubine, the Virgin, the Enigma and the Icon.
Just how did these beautiful women enhance and preserve their looks? And what seismic shockwaves did their fabulous beauty and iconic appearance have on their lives and the lives of those around them?
In five powerful portraits, the spotlight of The BEAUTY QUEENS turns first on the ancient beauty secrets of Queen Nefertari of Egypt – c. 1290-1254 BC – whose name meant ‘the most beautiful of them all’ – and who was so loved by her husband, the Pharaoh Rameses II that he made her into a goddess.
Then there was the astonishingly luxurious lifestyle of Wu Zetian, c.624-705 AD, the exquisite but ruthless concubine who bathed in milk to whiten her skin, but who murdered her own daughter on the way to becoming the only female Empress of China.
Next we have Queen Elizabeth I of England, 1533-1603 AD – Gloriana, the Virgin Queen – whose striking looks were twisted into a caricature of her former self when her youthful beauty was lost to the devastation of smallpox, so prevalent in Tudor England.
Nineteenth century Austria was an era where royal protocol was everything, but for the young and wilful Elisabeth of Bavaria (Sisi), 1837-1898, it became a golden cage when her dazzling perfection snared an Emperor by accident.
And finally the ‘Queen of Hearts’ – the fabulously glamorous but heartbreakingly tragic Diana, Princess of Wales, 1961-1997, whose life in so many ways echoed that of the Empress Elisabeth, and who relentlessly changed her image from gauche nanny to stunning superstar under the merciless scrutiny of a fascinated world.
Sex, violence, death, treachery, betrayal, heartbreak and hunger for power, the fortunes of The BEAUTY QUEENS would put a modern soap opera to shame. Lovers and mothers, formidable fighters, malicious murderers, ambitious rulers and romantic heroines; each Queen is brought vividly to life. Their privileged positions granted them rare access to limitless resources, funds, time, servants and slaves to enable their beauty regimes to encompass extraordinary, expensive and often bizarre rituals.
Phenomenal self-discipline, priceless potions, poisons and extreme paranoia all feature in the products and practices that these legendary beauties employed on their faces, hair and bodies to sustain their image. For some, position and privilege were their birthright, but for others their looks were their most coveted and tradable commodity, regardless of the often perilous eras, cultures, politics or religious times in which they lived.
Draw back the fragrant curtains of the royal boudoirs to glimpse a richly textured picture of daily life at a diversity of Royal Courts, expose the vices practised to preserve their virtues and the interaction of the private and the public. Above all, learn how their remarkable beauty was central in determining the fates of each of The BEAUTY QUEENS, who were indeed the Queens of Beauty.
You can find an excerpt from The BEAUTY QUEENS – and read about ‘The Fairy Princess’, Elisabeth, Empress of Austria, here.