BOOK OF THE WEEK - The Baroness by Hannah Rothschild (Virago)

This is one of the strangest, most poignant and often amusing tales from the jazz world - one that has become fairly well-known in recent years via books, magazine articles, a film documentary and at least one radio programme that I know of. Basically it's the story of how a Rothschild baroness, Pannonica, a rebel and eccentric in the making, was so besotted on first hearing Thelonious Monk's Round Midnight that she sought him out and became his adviser, protector, close friend and benefactor. They were both married at the time and while Nica, as she was widely know, managed to co-exist with Monk and his wife Nellie, her husband, children and most of the Rothschild clan all but disowned her. Hannah Rothschild, her great-niece is in the advantageous position of having access to the surviving Rothschilds who knew Nica, and, one suspects, the luxury of being able to spend nearly twenty years piecing this story together. The first part of the book goes into the Rothschild's history and Nica's background in some depth in an effort to try and explain what could have shaped Nica's personality and compelled her to make such a life-changing decision to go off and live a bohemian existence in New York with a then-struggling black jazz musician who appeared to be totally dependent on the help of other people to live day-to-day. The book then introduces us to Monk, his background, and the New York jazz scene in the 50s and 60s. The story has a tragic inevitability about it but Hannah Rothschild does a very convincing job of reconciling the apparent incompatibility of their backgrounds and providing compelling reasons for why the story unfolds in the way it does. Highly recommended.