Exotic, talented and an inspirer of devoted passion from both sexes, Violet Gordon Woodhouse was one of the twentieth century s most gifted musicians. In 1888, aged sixteen, she was studying with Oscar Beringer, one of the most notable piano scholars of the day. However, it was with the harpsichord and the early music revival that she was to find her real metier. Her ear for tone and phrasing and her instinctive interpretation of the music made her salon a magnet to many of the most important artists of the age. Her musical genius was equalled by her physical allure. She lived in a menage cinq with her husband and three superhusbands . She also attracted passionate devotion from women including Adelina Ganz, Ethel Smyth and Radclyffe Hall. Her biography is a story studded with unexpected sub-plots, most notably a double murder which forms the bizarre centrepiece of an extraordinary life.