Two Roads, 304pp, £20
Kiki de Montparnasse, born Alice Prin in 1901, was one of the queens of the rackety, seedy, riotously creative artistic scene seemed to agree: ‘This exuberantly entertaining biography sets out to rebalance the much-told story of Left Bank Paris, in which Kiki – model, memoirist and muse – is usually cast as a bit player. He brings that milieu to life in all its grit and energy – but also the larger sociopolitical pressures that myopic mythmaking leaves out.’
