Author(s): Robert Wainwright

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The tumultuous life of Australia's most famous opera singer, Dame Nellie Melba.

When most Australians think of Nellie Melba they picture a squarish, late middle-aged woman dressed in furs and large hats, an imperious Dame whose voice ruled the world for three decades and was the inspiration for a peach and raspberry dessert. But there is much more to her life than adulation and riches.

To succeed she had to battle social expectations and misogyny that would rather keep her as a housewife in the wilds of Queensland than be sullied onstage. She endured the violence of a bad marriage, was denied by scandal a true love with the would-be King of France and suffered the loss for more than decade of her only son, stolen by his angry, vengeful father.

All the while she built and maintained a career as an opera singer and businesswoman on three continents that made her Australia's first international superstar.