Judith Mackrell

Biographer Judith Mackrell tells the stories of three extraordinary and unconventional 20th-century women who fashioned their rebellious lives in Venice’s Unfinished Palazzo.

The Unfinished Palazzo on Venice’s Grand Canal was left abandoned to rot, yet at various stages it played host to the hugely wealthy Marchesa Luisa Casati, the notorious British socialite Doris Castlerosse (née Delevingne), and the American heiress Peggy Guggenheim. Casati made the palazzo a venue for extravagant parties, Castelrosse welcomed film stars and royalty, while Guggenheim gathered a collection of art that draws visitors today. Mackrell explains how each of their lives offers a snapshot of modern Venetian history and of the way women chose to live in the 20th century.

‘The best gallimaufry of gossip and scandal I have read in years’ Lynn Barber, Sunday Times

Mackrell is the Guardian’s dance critic and a successful biographer. She is author of Bloomsbury Ballerina: Lydia Lopokova, Imperial Dancer and Mrs John Maynard Keynes and Flappers: Six Women of a Dangerous Generation.

This event is part of the festival’s women in society programme sponsored by HSBC.

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