Lola Montez

Trestle theatre are touring a production of Lola, an exploration of the life of the extraordinary and larger-than-life Lola Montez. If, like me, you have ever read the Flashman novels (a guilty pleasure, to be sure), you will know that Lola was quite a firebrand, counting among her lovers Franz Liszt and Ludwig I of Bavaria (and of course, none other than Harry Flashman).

the show celebrates the life of an extraordinary woman who lived like she danced, with all the might of her body and the fire of her soul.

Perhaps not exactly a bluestocking, but certainly an extraordinary woman.

Lola Montez c.1851

In a bizarre footnote to Lola's story, it was claimed by William Wynn Westcott that Anna Sprengel, the alleged Secret Chief of the Golden Dawn (to whom Westcott and MacGregor Mathers wrote after deciphering her address from an old book) was the love-child of Lola Montez and Ludwig I of Bavaria.