Tiger Woman

by Betty May

Dancer, singer, gang member, cocaine addict and sometime confectionist, Betty Mays autobiography Tiger Woman thrilled and appalled the public when her story first appeared at the end of the roaring twenties. I have often lived only for pleasure and excitement but you will see that I came to it by unexpected ways Born into abject squalor in Londons Limehouse area, May used her steely-eyed, striking looks and street nous to become an unlikely bohemian celebrity sensation, a fixture at the Café Royal, London, marrying four times along the way alongside numerous affairs. I wondered why men would not leave me alone. They were alright at first when they offered to show one life, and then at once they became a nuisance She elbowed her way to the top of Londons social scene in a series of outrageous and dramatic fights, flights, marriages and misadventures that also took her to France, Italy, Canada and the USA. I learnt one thing on my honeymoon to take drugs Her most fateful adversary was occultist and self-proclaimed Great Beast Aleister Crowley, who intended her to be a sacrificial victim of his Thelemite cult in Sicily, but it was her husband Oxford undergraduate Raoul Loveday who died, after conducting a blood sacrifice ritual. Betty Mays vitality and ferocious charisma enchanted numerous artistic figures including Jacob Epstein and Jacob Kramer. A heroine like no other, this is her incredible story in her own words, as fresh and extraordinary as the day it was first told.

Genres: Biography

256 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1994

Reviews

[K.J. Charles]

Autobiographical account of a woman born in a slum / nightclub dancer / hung out with Epstein and the Bohemians pre war / brief stint as Parisian gangster / part of the Aleisteir Crowley cult / four marriages, all catastrophic. I mean...she was real, Epstein did a sculpture of her, she did live in the Crowley compound in Italy, so some of it is definitely true. For all I know every word is reliable (although let's be real, it's clearly not). Still it's a tall tale told with massive panache, even if, let us say *massaged* for sales purposes.

It is genuinely hilarious at points, profoundly disturbing at others (racism, domestic violence). Certainly puts the early c20 in a different light.

[Debbie P · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just read this "memoir" and really enjoyed it as I like to see into the lives of people who lived in different eras than this 21st century. Example her coster history (which is a peddlar selling fruit & vegatables, how it was to lives in the slums of London in the late 1800 hundreds (no beds!). I have also Read quite abit about Aleister Crowley "the most wicked man in the world" & to Read about him by someone who knew him 1st hand is awesome. Drinking cats blood disgusting. But if you look up Betty May on wickipedia she does state she did not write the book & no one seems to know what became of Betty in the years that followed, would have loved to see what happened in her life after 1929

[Lisa Tuttle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great fun -- not a great book because she was not a great writer (and it was likely ghost-written anyway) but I'm always intrigued by stories like this. In her case, much of the interest comes from the people she knew -- and her circle included The Great Beast.

[Sharon Cobb · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic read. Ripped right through it and wished for a sequel.
This is the story of a girl born in the slums of England who became the darling of Bohemian World.
Set mainly between the First War and World War Two, you really get immersed in a fascinating era filled with a cast of characters straight out of the movies:
War-torn English nobles, magicians, Brothel-owners with hearts of gold and French Apache Dancers.
I read it wanting to really believe all her fantastical adventures were real.
It’s her story and I’m sticking to it.
Be forewarned this is no cautionary tale of the evils of cocaine addiction and debauchery, this is a woman who lived her life with full abandon.

[JPK · Rating 5 out of 5]

An amazing autobiography about a woman who knew how to live. Model, singer, dancer, entertainer, salesclerk, cook, trafficking victim, cleaning lady...Betty May has been all. Though at times Ms. May name-drops and the writing is somewhat clumsy and the style amateur (for instance referring to some characters as “X” or “B” or the vague nicknames she refers to her boyfriends to). Still, an amazing book about a free woman living in a time when women weren’t free. It’s also a short read, and there is always something exciting happening making this book difficult to put down.

[Itch Iseatingnandos · Rating 5 out of 5]

I couldn't put this down, it was so fun to read. Betty May is a badass. From an East London street urchin to the in crowd and back again her fearless taste for adventure is never ending.

[Bill Wallace · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful first-hand history of cultural strata hardly anyone else ever chronicles. Ms. May was part of many early 20th century sub-cultures, the demimonde, the dopers, and the diabolists. The two chapters about Thelema are the best accounts here but it's all wonderful. I especially love the final chapter. After her husband dies from a Crowley cat blood sacrifice in Cefalu, she heads off to America with a native American con woman and then falls in love with an upper class English twit obsessed with decimating the local bird life before she, again, becomes sick of her existence and boldly faces the future.

This book so needs to be a movie if not a mini series.

[C G Walker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Riveting and fascinating insight into other worlds that existed between the the two world wars. Need to take it with a pinch of salt I think. An easy, quick read but she is definitely not the best author in the world. Short visit to the Yorkshire Grey in Fitzrovia, a pub my parents once kept. I enjoyed it greatly.

[Paul Toner · Rating 5 out of 5]

very enjoyable read, if very much exaggerated in parts.

[Jack Zivvi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very well written and a compelling story.

[Peter Morris]

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