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The Queen of Whale Cay: The Eccentric Story of 'Joe' Carstairs, Fastest Woman on Water
A biography of Marion "Joe" Carstairs, the fastest female speedboat racer of the 'twenties, describes her life as a wealthy and eccentric lesbian and unofficial ruler on a Caribbean island
256 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1997
22 people are currently reading
1108 people want to read
About the author
Kate Summerscale
11 books627 followersKate Summerscale (born in 1965) is an English writer and journalist.
She won the Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-fiction in 2008 with The Suspicions of Mr Whicher or The Murder at Road Hill House and won a Somerset Maugham Award in 1998 (and was shortlisted for the 1997 Whitbread Awards for biography) for the bestselling The Queen of Whale Cay, about Joe Carstairs, "fastest woman on water."
As a journalist, she worked for The Independent and The Daily Telegraph and her articles have appeared in The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph and The Sunday Telegraph. She stumbled on the story for The Suspicions of Mr Whicher in an 1890s anthology of unsolved crime stories and became so fascinated that she left her post as literary editor of The Daily Telegraph to pursue her investigations. She spent a year researching the book and another year writing it.
She has also judged various literary competitions including the Booker Prize in 2001.
She won the Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-fiction in 2008 with The Suspicions of Mr Whicher or The Murder at Road Hill House and won a Somerset Maugham Award in 1998 (and was shortlisted for the 1997 Whitbread Awards for biography) for the bestselling The Queen of Whale Cay, about Joe Carstairs, "fastest woman on water."
As a journalist, she worked for The Independent and The Daily Telegraph and her articles have appeared in The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph and The Sunday Telegraph. She stumbled on the story for The Suspicions of Mr Whicher in an 1890s anthology of unsolved crime stories and became so fascinated that she left her post as literary editor of The Daily Telegraph to pursue her investigations. She spent a year researching the book and another year writing it.
She has also judged various literary competitions including the Booker Prize in 2001.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 128 reviews
April 8, 2010
I started reading this because of the jacket blurb. At first it was just a description of an interesting memoir, the life story of a person who was the 1920's fastest female speedboat racer and eventually ruled her own island in the Bahamas, only to be forgotten in her old age. But here's the last sentence: "Through it all, she remained devoted to Lord Tod Wadley, a little doll who became the bosom companion of one of the twentieth century's great eccentrics." Doll, I said? Did I read that right? Yes, yes I did, and I still love how the editors threw that in right at the end with no explanation. So I read it to find out more about the doll, but what I really got was an engaging memoir with some admittedly strange details.
Joe Carstairs was a lesbian, a millionaire, a speed demon, and a very exterior person--in fact, because she revealed so little of her interior life to anybody except Lord Wadley, the author made a point of taking direct quotes from Carstairs and inferring possible meanings from them. Although I feel mildly uneasy making unsubstantiated claims about people who aren't alive to refute them (or not, although I think Joe would have refuted strongly), it added a more personal dimension to what would otherwise have been a narrative of straightforward facts. The facts alone would have been interesting, but this was more human.
Joe Carstairs was a lesbian, a millionaire, a speed demon, and a very exterior person--in fact, because she revealed so little of her interior life to anybody except Lord Wadley, the author made a point of taking direct quotes from Carstairs and inferring possible meanings from them. Although I feel mildly uneasy making unsubstantiated claims about people who aren't alive to refute them (or not, although I think Joe would have refuted strongly), it added a more personal dimension to what would otherwise have been a narrative of straightforward facts. The facts alone would have been interesting, but this was more human.
December 5, 2009
I saw this slim volume in the store and was fascinated by the picture on the cover - a woman dressed as a man with a little battered doll on her shoulder - "what in the world is this?" So, I started to read. What a surprise. This is the story of Marion "Joe" Carstairs, a Standard Oil heiress, a champion speed boat driver, friend to the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, an unrepentant lesbian, owner of the Caribbean isalnd Whale Cay, and the constant companion of Lord Todd Wadley (yes, a funny little doll). This is one of the most immediately engaging books I've ever read. What a character she was, and what a life she led. "The Queen of Whale Cay" is an absolute charmer from start to finish. Looking for a little slice of forgotten history to while a way some time? This is the book for you.
August 27, 2010
I liked the subject of this biography so much that I was almost able to ignore the writing. It was patchy, jumpy, and odd. There were bits that made me roll my eyes, and bits that made me hiss- mostly assumptions on the part of the author. I'd like to read an in-depth biography of Carstairs by a genuine biographer rather than an obituary writer, I think, but I'm glad I read this one.
July 21, 2019
Eccentric, original, bizarre. What could be less ordinary than a British woman born in 1900 dressing as a man and being completely obsessed with a doll? An author could not hope for a more interesting real life character to write about.
Miss ‘Joe’ Carstairs lived an interesting life. Part dream, part reality and everything in between. Raised by a drug addicted mother and coming into a grand inheritance at a young age both warped and shaped her life.
Joe lived as she wanted with no apologies. Ask anyone. Nevermind the alternative accounts and contrary information. Joe’s reality was the only one that mattered to her.
If all is to believed, Joe was a trailblazer. She was proud of her masculinity and her desire for women. Many women. Men died at war leaving an opportunity for a strong, determined Joe to fill. She revelled in what was then ‘man’s work’ and played to/dressed the part seamlessly. She reached fame and glory on the water, being the fastest woman to captain speed boats and breaking records.
She was also nutty. A random male doll was given to her by one of her earlier lovers. She treasured this doll a thousand times more than the average collector. The extent of this obsession is as entertaining as it is alarming.
Tired of England she ends up buying Whale Cay in the Bahamas and becomes the ruler of the people there. There are as many disturbing stories as there are altruistic ones as she put much of her wealth towards the betterment of the downtrodden inhabitants.
Overall, I found this very funny in an amusing way, informative and I mostly enjoyed reading about this era from such a non-focal angle.
I would recommend this to anyone who likes reading about eccentric people. I have a string of people to loan this book to.
Miss ‘Joe’ Carstairs lived an interesting life. Part dream, part reality and everything in between. Raised by a drug addicted mother and coming into a grand inheritance at a young age both warped and shaped her life.
Joe lived as she wanted with no apologies. Ask anyone. Nevermind the alternative accounts and contrary information. Joe’s reality was the only one that mattered to her.
If all is to believed, Joe was a trailblazer. She was proud of her masculinity and her desire for women. Many women. Men died at war leaving an opportunity for a strong, determined Joe to fill. She revelled in what was then ‘man’s work’ and played to/dressed the part seamlessly. She reached fame and glory on the water, being the fastest woman to captain speed boats and breaking records.
She was also nutty. A random male doll was given to her by one of her earlier lovers. She treasured this doll a thousand times more than the average collector. The extent of this obsession is as entertaining as it is alarming.
Tired of England she ends up buying Whale Cay in the Bahamas and becomes the ruler of the people there. There are as many disturbing stories as there are altruistic ones as she put much of her wealth towards the betterment of the downtrodden inhabitants.
Overall, I found this very funny in an amusing way, informative and I mostly enjoyed reading about this era from such a non-focal angle.
I would recommend this to anyone who likes reading about eccentric people. I have a string of people to loan this book to.
February 6, 2017
Summerscale has a knack for picking peculiar subjects and Joe Carstairs is no different. The portrait she paints of Carstairs is of a complex woman with so many faces - the racer, the pirate, the lover - that it's difficult to keep track. For everything to like about Carstairs, though, there's something to balance it out. Her selfishness, for instance, never dims. Her peculiarities were only tolerated because of her wealth (at least in traditional society). Her obsession with a doll that lasted for many years is indicative of someone who could afford to be different. I just wonder about all those women who wanted to but couldn't afford it.
February 8, 2017
This was one of those great finds that I sometimes unearth at the dollar store - the story of "Joe" Carstairs, a wealthy transgender who became famous for racing speedboats and later, buying her own private island in the Bahamas where she constructed her own society living openly with other women.
What would have been regarded at the time as both deviant and illegal, was for Carstiars regarded merely as eccentric. Money talks.
What would have been regarded at the time as both deviant and illegal, was for Carstiars regarded merely as eccentric. Money talks.
November 3, 2014
There is nothing inherently wrong with this book about a 1930s era billionaire who raced boats, dressed like a man, played with dolls, and then bought herself an island, I'm just not sure why she merited her own biography. She got my fifteen minutes of attention ... or four hours of reading.
July 6, 2018
This was such an interesting read, cross dressing lesbians of the 1920s led such extraordinary lives. Though the doll thing was weird and kind of creepy, he even had his own bible and golf clubs.
May 8, 2017
First, HOW WAS JOE CARSTAIRS NOT ON MY RADAR BEFORE NOW??!! I mean, what a life! From the literary salons of Paris, to the Bright Young People's parties in London, to grand adventures and love affairs with movies stars on a private island—the life of Joe Carstairs was that most wonderful of cliche's: stranger than fiction. Don't even get me started on Lord Tod Wadley. You cannot make this stuff up. Even before I finished the book, I'd added Joe to my list of five people, dead or alive, that I'd want to invite to a dinner party. (Sorry, Patricia Highsmith: you're bumped.)
And I only learned about this book, and by extension Joe, by happy accident. I'd been sent a review copy of Kate Summerscale's most recent book, The Wicked Boy, (which I haven't yet had a chance to read) and saw she was speaking at Adelaide Writers' Week, so I figured I'd listen in on her session to learn more about The Wicked Boy before I dived in. By the end of Summerscale's talk, I knew The Wicked Boy would have to wait a little longer: I needed to read The Queen of Whale Cay first. As in, immediately. It just seemed too good a story to be true. I mean, here's this woman who was so utterly unique and yet somehow also very specifically a product of her time. And what a time! Much of the book focuses on Joe's work as a mechanic and chauffeur and later as a speed-boat racer in the 1920s, and then her early years on Whale Cay in the 1930s and 40s when she transformed the impoverished island into a thriving economic success. Here was this woman who found herself in the very privileged position of being rich enough to snub her nose at all the things that were expected of her as a woman at that time. She could dress as she wished, sleep with whom she wanted (Oscar Wilde's niece, Dolly Wilde, was among her early lovers) and be wholly and unapologetically herself—and she took full advantage of that.
But, extraordinary as Carstairs' story is, it's Summerscale's retelling that makes The Queen of Whale Cay such a memorable read. Not only is her style highly engaging, Summerscale has a brilliant knack for blending analysis and storytelling. For example, there is a fabulous chapter titled 'The Neverland' in which Summerscale explores the many parallels between Joe's obsession with boyishness and life on Whale Cay with the story of Peter Pan. Looking at Joe through a contemporary lens, it would be easy to code her as transgender, but Summerscale takes pains to point out that this is inaccurate, or at the very least, an oversimplification. While Joe dressed and behaved in ways that were perceived as 'male', she didn't want to be a man, she wanted to be a boy. (On an interesting but totally tangential note: it's this same word—'boy'—that Joe's contemporary, Daphne du Maurier, used when writing about her alter-ego, 'the boy in the box'.) While Whale Cay became economically prosperous under Joe's management, her lifestyle on the island had the feel of a Boys' Own adventure story: there were sailing expeditions, wild parties, elaborate pranks played on unsuspecting guests, treasure hunts, crusades against the powers that be on larger islands, shipwrecked tourists taken hostage, and it seems Joe was rather fond of wielding a cutlass. But of course, and as J. M. Barrie reminds us in the opening line of Peter Pan: 'All children, except one, grow up.' And Joe wasn't that child.
In the book's latter chapters Summerscale recounts the gradual loss of Joe's fantasy boyhood (and with it her illusions of immortality) as her body slowly betrayed her in her final decades. The great tragedy of Joe's life, it seems, is that it declined slowly. Unremarkably. In a manner so at odds with Joe herself. My favourite lines in Peter Pan, which Summerscale also quotes, are these: 'On these magic shores children at play are forever beaching their coracles. We too have been there; we can still hear the sound of the surf, though we shall land no more.' And perhaps what I loved most about The Queen of Whale Cay—more even than its wild, rollicking early chapters—is the sense that Summerscale communicates of a coming-of-age story playing out on a grand scale, taking place over decades rather than months or years. In highlighting how this was such a belated and drawn out transition for Joe, she makes the loss of childhood more tragic, an ache more keenly felt.
While Joe is undoubtedly one of history's more unique personalities, Summerscale is quick to point out that she was also very much typical of her generation, and that her extravagance and eccentricity, her obsession with youth, her androgyny and her tendency to live wholly for the moment were traits shared by many of her peers. The key difference is that Joe endured.
Summerscale writes about Joe as one of the few survivors among her Bright Young friends, an alarming number of whom committed suicide, became addicts and overdosed at a young age, were casualties of war, met some other untimely end or simply grew up. She manages to communicate, beneath the dazzling theatre of Joe's life, a very specific and insatiable yearning for a moment that's been lost, and perhaps never really existed to begin with. It's the same yearning that underpins many fictional works of Joe's contemporaries: it's there beneath the wit and in the jolting endings of Nancy Mitford's novels, woven through Evelyn Waugh's biting satires and writ large through Brideshead Revisited, and (across the sea) permeates F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby.
It would be easy to just look at Joe Carstairs the myth, and Summerscale gives the impression that perhaps this is what Joe herself wanted (she constantly contradicted herself and deflected when answering personal questions), but Summerscale makes a real effort to seek out and understand the woman behind the myth. In fact, the real triumph of The Queen of Whale Cay lies in Summerscale's ability to temper theatrics and sensationalism with moments of poignant reflection.
I've since read Summerscale's The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher (review coming soon), and her style is so engaging, her research so thorough and her analysis so fascinating that she's basically become one of my favourite non-fiction writers. I'm very much looking forward to The Wicked Boy.
For more bookish bits, head on over to Lectito, or get the latest Lectito reviews delivered to your inbox.
And I only learned about this book, and by extension Joe, by happy accident. I'd been sent a review copy of Kate Summerscale's most recent book, The Wicked Boy, (which I haven't yet had a chance to read) and saw she was speaking at Adelaide Writers' Week, so I figured I'd listen in on her session to learn more about The Wicked Boy before I dived in. By the end of Summerscale's talk, I knew The Wicked Boy would have to wait a little longer: I needed to read The Queen of Whale Cay first. As in, immediately. It just seemed too good a story to be true. I mean, here's this woman who was so utterly unique and yet somehow also very specifically a product of her time. And what a time! Much of the book focuses on Joe's work as a mechanic and chauffeur and later as a speed-boat racer in the 1920s, and then her early years on Whale Cay in the 1930s and 40s when she transformed the impoverished island into a thriving economic success. Here was this woman who found herself in the very privileged position of being rich enough to snub her nose at all the things that were expected of her as a woman at that time. She could dress as she wished, sleep with whom she wanted (Oscar Wilde's niece, Dolly Wilde, was among her early lovers) and be wholly and unapologetically herself—and she took full advantage of that.
But, extraordinary as Carstairs' story is, it's Summerscale's retelling that makes The Queen of Whale Cay such a memorable read. Not only is her style highly engaging, Summerscale has a brilliant knack for blending analysis and storytelling. For example, there is a fabulous chapter titled 'The Neverland' in which Summerscale explores the many parallels between Joe's obsession with boyishness and life on Whale Cay with the story of Peter Pan. Looking at Joe through a contemporary lens, it would be easy to code her as transgender, but Summerscale takes pains to point out that this is inaccurate, or at the very least, an oversimplification. While Joe dressed and behaved in ways that were perceived as 'male', she didn't want to be a man, she wanted to be a boy. (On an interesting but totally tangential note: it's this same word—'boy'—that Joe's contemporary, Daphne du Maurier, used when writing about her alter-ego, 'the boy in the box'.) While Whale Cay became economically prosperous under Joe's management, her lifestyle on the island had the feel of a Boys' Own adventure story: there were sailing expeditions, wild parties, elaborate pranks played on unsuspecting guests, treasure hunts, crusades against the powers that be on larger islands, shipwrecked tourists taken hostage, and it seems Joe was rather fond of wielding a cutlass. But of course, and as J. M. Barrie reminds us in the opening line of Peter Pan: 'All children, except one, grow up.' And Joe wasn't that child.
In the book's latter chapters Summerscale recounts the gradual loss of Joe's fantasy boyhood (and with it her illusions of immortality) as her body slowly betrayed her in her final decades. The great tragedy of Joe's life, it seems, is that it declined slowly. Unremarkably. In a manner so at odds with Joe herself. My favourite lines in Peter Pan, which Summerscale also quotes, are these: 'On these magic shores children at play are forever beaching their coracles. We too have been there; we can still hear the sound of the surf, though we shall land no more.' And perhaps what I loved most about The Queen of Whale Cay—more even than its wild, rollicking early chapters—is the sense that Summerscale communicates of a coming-of-age story playing out on a grand scale, taking place over decades rather than months or years. In highlighting how this was such a belated and drawn out transition for Joe, she makes the loss of childhood more tragic, an ache more keenly felt.
While Joe is undoubtedly one of history's more unique personalities, Summerscale is quick to point out that she was also very much typical of her generation, and that her extravagance and eccentricity, her obsession with youth, her androgyny and her tendency to live wholly for the moment were traits shared by many of her peers. The key difference is that Joe endured.
Summerscale writes about Joe as one of the few survivors among her Bright Young friends, an alarming number of whom committed suicide, became addicts and overdosed at a young age, were casualties of war, met some other untimely end or simply grew up. She manages to communicate, beneath the dazzling theatre of Joe's life, a very specific and insatiable yearning for a moment that's been lost, and perhaps never really existed to begin with. It's the same yearning that underpins many fictional works of Joe's contemporaries: it's there beneath the wit and in the jolting endings of Nancy Mitford's novels, woven through Evelyn Waugh's biting satires and writ large through Brideshead Revisited, and (across the sea) permeates F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby.
It would be easy to just look at Joe Carstairs the myth, and Summerscale gives the impression that perhaps this is what Joe herself wanted (she constantly contradicted herself and deflected when answering personal questions), but Summerscale makes a real effort to seek out and understand the woman behind the myth. In fact, the real triumph of The Queen of Whale Cay lies in Summerscale's ability to temper theatrics and sensationalism with moments of poignant reflection.
I've since read Summerscale's The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher (review coming soon), and her style is so engaging, her research so thorough and her analysis so fascinating that she's basically become one of my favourite non-fiction writers. I'm very much looking forward to The Wicked Boy.
For more bookish bits, head on over to Lectito, or get the latest Lectito reviews delivered to your inbox.
September 15, 2022
Trigger warning: alcohol, colonialism, queerphobia, suicide attempts (mentioned, happens off-page), pedophilia (mentioned, happens off-page)
This book raises an interesting question. Joe Carstairs enjoyed wearing men's clothing, insisted on being called Joe their entire life, got upset when they were called "Betsy", and preferred to hang out with men and boys over women and girls. The author quotes several times where they say something along the lines of "I wish I were a boy" or "I feel like a boy". Yet the author labels them a lesbian. Sure, at the time, as someone assigned female at birth who dated other women, they probably called themselves a lesbian, since the word trans didn't exist at the time, and I don't want to apply labels to someone forcefully, but it bothers me that the discussion doesn't even come up. We don't know how Joe would have identified if he had been born 100 years later. It feels like erasure to me to call them a woman and a lesbian with no discussion. I'm starting a new shelf: are you sure they aren't trans?
Overall, the biography was somewhat dry, but it was short. I found it interesting how much the author brushes over Joe's legacy of colonialism. He bought an island in the Caribbean and the author describes offhandedly how Joe was strict and somewhat cruel to the people on the island.
This book raises an interesting question. Joe Carstairs enjoyed wearing men's clothing, insisted on being called Joe their entire life, got upset when they were called "Betsy", and preferred to hang out with men and boys over women and girls. The author quotes several times where they say something along the lines of "I wish I were a boy" or "I feel like a boy". Yet the author labels them a lesbian. Sure, at the time, as someone assigned female at birth who dated other women, they probably called themselves a lesbian, since the word trans didn't exist at the time, and I don't want to apply labels to someone forcefully, but it bothers me that the discussion doesn't even come up. We don't know how Joe would have identified if he had been born 100 years later. It feels like erasure to me to call them a woman and a lesbian with no discussion. I'm starting a new shelf: are you sure they aren't trans?
Overall, the biography was somewhat dry, but it was short. I found it interesting how much the author brushes over Joe's legacy of colonialism. He bought an island in the Caribbean and the author describes offhandedly how Joe was strict and somewhat cruel to the people on the island.
September 3, 2021
It's kind of like DRACULA'S DAUGHTER, except where the Countess knows how unhappy she is and is poignantly searching for a cure, Joe is in denial and flaunts all sorts of weirdness as a way of covering up. It's significant that she has dozens of female lovers, but I don't think more than two or three are ever mentioned by name. I thought this would be a fun book but by the end I was depressed. I think Joe needed Sandor to shoot her with an arrow!
March 25, 2019
I really should have given up reading this book when I was sickened and disturbed by chapter 3 entitled 'The action of testicular pulp' which details experiments done on animals to try to prove a theory that testicular matter can heal wounds and even more fanciful gains in animals and potentially humans. It just got more and more gross and, not surprisingly, nothing was proved except a lot of pain and trauma on innocent animals and the occasional human.
The rest of the book didn't cheer me either. 'The Queen of Whale Kay' is Marion Barbara Carstairs who was born into a very wealthy family in 1900. It starts with Marion being thrown off a bolting camel at London Zoo in 1905 and claiming that her birth story starts there as this is when she was reborn with a new persona and became Joe Carstairs. Joe spent the next 88 years of her life dressing as a man and having numerous affairs with women. Money was no object and she spent copious amounts on racing boats and buying properties including Whale Cay, an island in the Bahamas.
She behaved outrageously as she really didn't care what anyone thought of her. She played practical jokes which were not the slightest bit amusing, indeed quite the opposite. These included getting a friend fired from a post in a New York Department store under suspicion of theft, destroying all the crops on her half-brother's neighbouring island and terrorising the passengers of a cruise ship into believing they'd been captured by wild tribesmen and holding them prisoner all night.
When she was 25 a girlfriend gave Carstairs a one foot high stuffed leather Steiff doll. Carstairs called this doll Lord Tod Wadley and then worshipped it for the rest of her life. She couldn't be parted from it, spoke about it like it was a real person, took endless photos of it in various normal life type situation with captions underneath. It is endlessly referred to in the book as though it is a real person.
To say I didn't like Marion/Joe Carstairs one little bit would be an understatement but I also didn't like that the author gave her further publicity by writing about this person with such respect when actually she treated others incredibly badly, or paid lots of money for their friendship as it suited her.
The rest of the book didn't cheer me either. 'The Queen of Whale Kay' is Marion Barbara Carstairs who was born into a very wealthy family in 1900. It starts with Marion being thrown off a bolting camel at London Zoo in 1905 and claiming that her birth story starts there as this is when she was reborn with a new persona and became Joe Carstairs. Joe spent the next 88 years of her life dressing as a man and having numerous affairs with women. Money was no object and she spent copious amounts on racing boats and buying properties including Whale Cay, an island in the Bahamas.
She behaved outrageously as she really didn't care what anyone thought of her. She played practical jokes which were not the slightest bit amusing, indeed quite the opposite. These included getting a friend fired from a post in a New York Department store under suspicion of theft, destroying all the crops on her half-brother's neighbouring island and terrorising the passengers of a cruise ship into believing they'd been captured by wild tribesmen and holding them prisoner all night.
When she was 25 a girlfriend gave Carstairs a one foot high stuffed leather Steiff doll. Carstairs called this doll Lord Tod Wadley and then worshipped it for the rest of her life. She couldn't be parted from it, spoke about it like it was a real person, took endless photos of it in various normal life type situation with captions underneath. It is endlessly referred to in the book as though it is a real person.
To say I didn't like Marion/Joe Carstairs one little bit would be an understatement but I also didn't like that the author gave her further publicity by writing about this person with such respect when actually she treated others incredibly badly, or paid lots of money for their friendship as it suited her.
June 16, 2014
Interesting, I doubt I'd have liked Joe Carstairs if I'd have met her but its always good to be reminded that there was a lesbian subculture back in the 1920s (albeit a rich white one - as least as far as the books show. Other than that its a testament to the life of a person with tons of money and some odd ideas. On the other hand there is something admirable about someone who so resolutely ignores all the conventions and does their own thing. In that context it is also interesting to note how society's tolerance for Joe & other "inverts" shifts from acceptance to rejection and back at various points and maybe there is a reminder there whilst we are all enjoying our current phase of acceptance at least in the UK & Europe that things can change very quickly.
Its a thinnish book with quite a few photos, the only real information on Carstairs relates to the period between about 1920-1940, the rest of her long life is covered quite lightly. So its a quick read but if you are interested in lesbian history, and the glamour of the 1920' & early 30s it might be worth adding to your list
Its a thinnish book with quite a few photos, the only real information on Carstairs relates to the period between about 1920-1940, the rest of her long life is covered quite lightly. So its a quick read but if you are interested in lesbian history, and the glamour of the 1920' & early 30s it might be worth adding to your list
August 22, 2007
The author says in the Introduction: "There were many things this book could or would not be. It would not be a book about lesbianism - Joe Carstairs was too singluar and strange to be representative of anything other than herself." Her orientation is treated matter-of-factly, far from downplayed; it's upfront throughout the book. Ms. Summerscale has done an awful lot of research on a somewhat obscure subject, to put together a fascinating potrait of such an eccentric character. I confess I skimmed through the boat racing details, though they are an important part of the story.
October 6, 2011
I greatly enjoyed the story of this woman's interesting and entirely bizarre life. I picked it up for a dollar at a library booksale just to see if it was good, and I am glad I came across it. I do think that it could have been better organized and edited, and I agree with other reviewers that some of the author's attempts to guess at Joe's motivations and true feelings were unfounded and weird. And I really did not understand why she drew parallels with Peter Pan. But overall, this was an enjoyable biography of an interesting woman.
April 1, 2007
This is a fascinating life but it doesn't seem like the author knows what to do with it except lay down the colorful twists and gender-bending turns on paper. In the hands of someone more fluent in queer culture this could be a knock out book (or screenplay!).
April 11, 2007
I agree w/ the first reviewer. The author didn't seem to know what to do with such a colorful character. I mean, her best friend was a male puppet!
March 2, 2009
This book is incredible, and while it is well-written, most of the credit must go to the subject, Joe Carstairs. She makes fiction look timid.
February 26, 2018
While the intriguing life of Carstair is a 5 star story, this book's writing is 2 stars.
May 25, 2019
Like many readers, my first exposure to Kate Summerscale was THE SUSPICIONS OF MR WHICHER, a remarkable non-fiction crime book which managed to make a story based purely on historical documentation a real page-turner. THE QUEEN OF WHALE CAY is no follow-up, but in fact Summerscale's first book, published back in the 1990s. It's a short, straightforward, slightly fragmented biography of Joe Carstairs, a real bon vivant who turns out to be one of the most interesting 20th century figures I've read about.
Carstairs was born a girl but lived her life as a man, complete with a succession of female lovers. She belonged to a wealthy family and used her resources to travel the world, becoming well known in the 1920s for her love of speed boat racing and wild party lifestyle. In the 1930s she gave up her life in Britain, bought an island in the Bahamas, and became the titular character for the next fifty years. It's a pretty amazing life story, more larger than life than anything else, and slightly sinister too; the character of Lord Tod Wadley is enough to give one sleepless nights. There's plenty of food for thought here, a successful effort to characterise the subject, and sufficient psychological depth to make it of interest throughout. Summerscale has done a splendid job.
Carstairs was born a girl but lived her life as a man, complete with a succession of female lovers. She belonged to a wealthy family and used her resources to travel the world, becoming well known in the 1920s for her love of speed boat racing and wild party lifestyle. In the 1930s she gave up her life in Britain, bought an island in the Bahamas, and became the titular character for the next fifty years. It's a pretty amazing life story, more larger than life than anything else, and slightly sinister too; the character of Lord Tod Wadley is enough to give one sleepless nights. There's plenty of food for thought here, a successful effort to characterise the subject, and sufficient psychological depth to make it of interest throughout. Summerscale has done a splendid job.
August 29, 2025
Eccentric Standard Oil lesbian heiress of the swinging twenties seeking adventure and mischief in Europe and the U.S. finds contentment in the Bahamas.
Crass, flamboyant, and unapologetically ahead of her time, Marion Barbara 'Joe' Carstairs makes for an interesting subject. But Kate Summerscale's approach felt off, perhaps because she didn't have enough material to begin with. Padded with lengthy inconsequential details (a protracted introduction to Oscar Wilde's niece Dolly Wilde, for one), I feel this book would have been better off as a profile piece on People Magazine.
Marion Barbara "Joe" Carstairs wanted to be a boy, and stay a boy all her life. Summerscale did her subject a disservice by calling her The Queen of Whale Cay.
Crass, flamboyant, and unapologetically ahead of her time, Marion Barbara 'Joe' Carstairs makes for an interesting subject. But Kate Summerscale's approach felt off, perhaps because she didn't have enough material to begin with. Padded with lengthy inconsequential details (a protracted introduction to Oscar Wilde's niece Dolly Wilde, for one), I feel this book would have been better off as a profile piece on People Magazine.
Marion Barbara "Joe" Carstairs wanted to be a boy, and stay a boy all her life. Summerscale did her subject a disservice by calling her The Queen of Whale Cay.
August 1, 2021
4.5: I think this is Summerscale's first book, so her writing wasn't quite as engaging as in her later books, but still good. Joe Carstairs- wow- what a person. Problematic and troubled hero, challenging and reinforcing status quo. But what a life. Fascinating from start to finish.
October 2, 2020
I found this one looking for a piece of queer history and while I found it, this book (not to mention Joe Carstairs herself) has some...problems. This is a biography of Joe Carstairs. She was a Standard Oil heiress. She grew up in America, lived in Europe for much of her youth, where she was an ambulance driver cleaning up France after World War I, did a lot of powerboat racing and dated a lot of ladies (this is a running theme, she dated a lot of famous actresses at the time). In part due to tax reasons (although she clearly had quite enough money to pay them, see: heiress) she bought an island in the Bahamas called Whale Cay. She set herself up as its colonial ruler, complete with racial heirarchy with herself at the top and Bahamanians of color at the bottom. I don't need to tell you how immensely screwed up that is, and the book doesn't deal with that to my satisfaction.
Carstairs does not come across as particularly likeable. She played very mean pranks on people (one story I recall where she got a friend fired because she thought she didn't "deserve" a job, meanwhile hello, heiress who never had to work??). It's cool that she lived as a gender non-conforming person in a time when that was much less common, and also, it's a really testosterone-fueled vision of masculinity that feels rooted in power and control. The whole Whale Cay thing is not the first or last time that her deeply racist views come up, without the complex treatment I think they need and deserve. And am I the only person who thinks it's a bit creepy that she kept a doll named Lord Tod Wadley with her for her entire adult life? That's weird, right?
There's a really good podcast called Bad Gays that deals much better with evil and complicated queer people in history (though Carstairs did hang out with former Nazis the Duke and Duchess of Windsor when he became the governor of the Bahamas, I'd probably put her in the more "complicated" than outright "evil" category). Joe Carstairs, colonial overlord, definitely fits the bill.
Carstairs does not come across as particularly likeable. She played very mean pranks on people (one story I recall where she got a friend fired because she thought she didn't "deserve" a job, meanwhile hello, heiress who never had to work??). It's cool that she lived as a gender non-conforming person in a time when that was much less common, and also, it's a really testosterone-fueled vision of masculinity that feels rooted in power and control. The whole Whale Cay thing is not the first or last time that her deeply racist views come up, without the complex treatment I think they need and deserve. And am I the only person who thinks it's a bit creepy that she kept a doll named Lord Tod Wadley with her for her entire adult life? That's weird, right?
There's a really good podcast called Bad Gays that deals much better with evil and complicated queer people in history (though Carstairs did hang out with former Nazis the Duke and Duchess of Windsor when he became the governor of the Bahamas, I'd probably put her in the more "complicated" than outright "evil" category). Joe Carstairs, colonial overlord, definitely fits the bill.
June 21, 2024
A while back I read Mrs Robinson's Disgrace by Kate Summerscale, a book I enjoyed immensely (and then proceeded to push on to anyone who would listen - no regrets). Obviously, I then decided to find everything else Summerscale has written and add to my reading list
This time Summerscale's subject is Marion Barbara Carstairs who lived out her life as Joe Carstairs, rejecting gender roles (lived out her life as a chap), rejecting the expectations of the age (she was a power boat racer) and pretty much rejecting anything that didn't make her happy (her childhood, her parents, her name). She lived what was for her time a very out and proud life. Of course, it helped that she was an heiress with loads of money.
This slim volume paints a vivid picture of a headstrong and fearless person, and though I got the feeling that the author was under her subject's spell a little, concentrating more on what made Joe remarkable rather than what made her dislikeable, it was easy to momentarily fall under that spell too (though mostly I thought Joe was a bit of a dick).
Joe was a thrill seeker, wanting a life of adventure and action. She drove an ambulance during the war, used her boats for a spot of piracy as well as transporting bootleg liquor during prohibition. A privileged brat who was a product of the colonial age, she had no qualms about owning an island and its people. She did quite a lot for the people of her island, but with her benevolence came also a low opinion of her islanders and the assumption that they needed her to civilize them. Having said that, she probably still had a better handle on race relations than a lot of her contemporaries. She also had flings with Marlene Dietrich as well as Oscar Wilde's niece Dolly Wilde, leading the kind of life that would already be a Hollywood movie had she been born a man.
It's a book I'd thoroughly recommend the book to anyone wanting to read about interesting women and LGBT figures. Some undesirable personality traits aside, Joe was a remarkable character.
This time Summerscale's subject is Marion Barbara Carstairs who lived out her life as Joe Carstairs, rejecting gender roles (lived out her life as a chap), rejecting the expectations of the age (she was a power boat racer) and pretty much rejecting anything that didn't make her happy (her childhood, her parents, her name). She lived what was for her time a very out and proud life. Of course, it helped that she was an heiress with loads of money.
This slim volume paints a vivid picture of a headstrong and fearless person, and though I got the feeling that the author was under her subject's spell a little, concentrating more on what made Joe remarkable rather than what made her dislikeable, it was easy to momentarily fall under that spell too (though mostly I thought Joe was a bit of a dick).
Joe was a thrill seeker, wanting a life of adventure and action. She drove an ambulance during the war, used her boats for a spot of piracy as well as transporting bootleg liquor during prohibition. A privileged brat who was a product of the colonial age, she had no qualms about owning an island and its people. She did quite a lot for the people of her island, but with her benevolence came also a low opinion of her islanders and the assumption that they needed her to civilize them. Having said that, she probably still had a better handle on race relations than a lot of her contemporaries. She also had flings with Marlene Dietrich as well as Oscar Wilde's niece Dolly Wilde, leading the kind of life that would already be a Hollywood movie had she been born a man.
It's a book I'd thoroughly recommend the book to anyone wanting to read about interesting women and LGBT figures. Some undesirable personality traits aside, Joe was a remarkable character.
January 10, 2016
The English excel at the nurturing and cultivation of eccentrics. From ferret legging to innkeepers who charge extra to those "whose faces he didn't care for" there's an eccentric for every taste from the land of Shakespeare. I think Will S. would have enjoyed the subject of Kate Summerscale's ode to eccentricity - Marion Barbara "Joe" Carstairs - what with the tropical islands, cross-dressing, vague paternity and feats of derring-do, how could he not?
Joe, The Queen of Whale Cay, demonstrated that with enough money and limited interest in the opinions of others one could pretty much live as one wished back in the 1920s and 1930s, including living openly as a lesbian, obsessing over a stuff doll and owning your own kingdom. Refreshingly, our boy-girl Joe is happy eccentric; generous and loyal to friends and lovers, interested in the welfare of her subjects, and generally enjoying life. Despite being inexplicably nicknamed "Betty" by the press, she also earns her title of "the fastest woman on water" by racing powerboats in the early days of the sport.
Summerscale strikes just the right note for this slim biography - light without being lightweight. She doesn't over think what motivated Joe and certainly doesn't ask the read to feel sorry for her. If Joe was a bit more comfortable proclaiming her love for inanimate objects rather than people or if she was surprisingly vague about her mother's first name, none of it seems to have resulted in regrets.
Joe was who she was, and everybody just had to accept it. She appears to have earned no enemies but many friends. And she lived well and gave generously but still managed to die with sizable estate. We should all be so lucky. A fun, quick read.
Joe, The Queen of Whale Cay, demonstrated that with enough money and limited interest in the opinions of others one could pretty much live as one wished back in the 1920s and 1930s, including living openly as a lesbian, obsessing over a stuff doll and owning your own kingdom. Refreshingly, our boy-girl Joe is happy eccentric; generous and loyal to friends and lovers, interested in the welfare of her subjects, and generally enjoying life. Despite being inexplicably nicknamed "Betty" by the press, she also earns her title of "the fastest woman on water" by racing powerboats in the early days of the sport.
Summerscale strikes just the right note for this slim biography - light without being lightweight. She doesn't over think what motivated Joe and certainly doesn't ask the read to feel sorry for her. If Joe was a bit more comfortable proclaiming her love for inanimate objects rather than people or if she was surprisingly vague about her mother's first name, none of it seems to have resulted in regrets.
Joe was who she was, and everybody just had to accept it. She appears to have earned no enemies but many friends. And she lived well and gave generously but still managed to die with sizable estate. We should all be so lucky. A fun, quick read.
January 14, 2020
“Though she had spent her life endeavouring to ignore it, Joe Carstairs was made of flesh and blood.”
I think this sentence neatly sums up the anomalous Queen. She’d done a lot of crazy things in her long life, some good, some bad, but all the way through she lived for herself, in the present moment, on impulse. She’s an absolutely fascinating character. I’m still not sure I like her, but I think I get her. She railed against adulthood and authority. She was Peter Pan on the Bahamian island she bought: Whale Cay (pronounced ‘key’), where she created her own Neverland with her ridiculously huge inheritance.
I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. It’s definitely not my favourite of Kate Summerscale’s books, but I know I’ll end up thinking about all the things left unsaid about the hidden sides of Joe Carstairs, about her quiet terror of mortality, which she dealt with and ignored through reckless abandon and a furious excitement for life and the opportunity for adventure.
I think this sentence neatly sums up the anomalous Queen. She’d done a lot of crazy things in her long life, some good, some bad, but all the way through she lived for herself, in the present moment, on impulse. She’s an absolutely fascinating character. I’m still not sure I like her, but I think I get her. She railed against adulthood and authority. She was Peter Pan on the Bahamian island she bought: Whale Cay (pronounced ‘key’), where she created her own Neverland with her ridiculously huge inheritance.
I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. It’s definitely not my favourite of Kate Summerscale’s books, but I know I’ll end up thinking about all the things left unsaid about the hidden sides of Joe Carstairs, about her quiet terror of mortality, which she dealt with and ignored through reckless abandon and a furious excitement for life and the opportunity for adventure.
April 13, 2015
Well written brief bio of a (seemingly) completely insipid person. Carstairs was, in the telling, not a wholly uninteresting subject, just an altogether insubstantial one. I'm not sure more could have been extracted from the surviving record. The author does an admirable job of reconstruction. But while there's much of interest in the broader historical background of the book, and in its gender theoretical aspects, there's little to amuse, entertain, or inspire in Carstairs' personal story. She was a wealthy, androgynous, cross-dressing nymphomaniacal narcissist whose closest relationship was with a boy doll (literally). If there was any more substance to her than that, this bio does not make the case. Though a compelling enough piece of writing, I'm only too glad it was a short and quick-reading book.
July 31, 2012
This was a very slim biography of a woman doomed to obscurity. At best, Joe Carstairs could be described as an eccentric. Sparked by an obituary, Summerscale attempts to tease out the life story of a woman who was briefly hailed in the early part of the 20th century as “The fastest woman on water”. Parts of the book are best taken with a whole shaker of salt since Carstairs by the author’s and her own admission embellished, misremembered and sometimes outright lied. Because there was so little documented information about Ms. Carstairs, the book occasionally feels padded, but if you are looking for non-fiction about a cross-dressing heiress whose best friend was a doll, this is the book for you.
May 5, 2016
I loved this book. What an incredible character Carstairs was; speed racer on sea and land, self styled pirate, hunter, womaniser, benevolent dictator (mostly) of her own island kingdom, trickster and loyal supporter of those she felt had supported her. I like to think I'd love to have met her, but in truth she'd probably have frightened the pants off me. Summerscale paints a vivid portrait of an eccentric and complicated woman, who invented and reinvented her persona and in part lived vicariously through her constant companion, a male doll she dubbed Lord Tod Wadley. Highly recommended.
December 26, 2020
Compelling story of Marion Barbara or Joe Carstairs, the eccentric lesbian heiress who raced motorboats and bought the island of Whale Cay in the Bahamas. Her only truly honest relationship was with her male doll, Lord Tod Wadley, with whom she was cremated at the age of 93. Kate Summerscale brings out the motif of rebirth as a constant in Joe's life, to show how she tried to elude her troubled family history and fear of ageing by constantly reinventing herself. Summerscale also makes a long and fruitful comparison with JM Barrie's Peter Pan.
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