Good. Tearing to dustcover corners. Some discolouring of first 3 pages. Signed by Author. printed signature by Joan Sutherland.

On 17th February, i959, Joan Sutherland sang her first Lucia to one of the most overwhelming and enthusiastic ovations ever heard at Covent Garden. The occasion marked an end and a beginning: it was the end of a long period of concentrated work, of trial and error, of encouragement and depression, of a successful career as a leading soprano at Covent Garden, and the beginning of an international career as a prima donna, secure of her place among the greatest.
Joan Sutherland emerges from Russell Braddon's biography as an extremely modest and sensible woman. She has a delightful sense of humour and great understanding of human nature. She is a devoted mother and wife and a sensitive colleague. She has temperament in the best sense of the word and expects her colleagues to give the same unstinting devotion to the task in hand as she does. She has a great respect for talent and sincerity and is willing to put up with a great deal from anyone who has either of these qualities. She has both, but if asked the secret of her success will probably reply, "Work"—followed by a list of names, the names of those who have helped her throughout her career in Australia and in England.
Russell Braddon's biography which has been written with her fullest collaboration, is an account of this extraordinary success story. Joan Sutherland was born in Sydney, Australia, in 1926. After leaving school she began work as a secretary, studying singing in her spare time. In 1950 she entered and won the sun Aria Competition and shortly afterwards, the Mobil Quest Award. She was soon singing in a number of concerts and with the money she had won from prizes she came to England in 1951 for further tn the 1952-3 season and in the following years sang a wide variety of roles in the repertory. raining. She made her debut at Covent Garden iSlowly but surely her reputation grew. In 1956 it was becoming apparent to others, as it had long been to her husband, that her future lay in the coloratura field. At last in 1959 came her great Covent Garden triumph in Handel's Samson and then her Lucia di Lammermoor, a performance that amazed even those who had believed in her most faithfully. She was hailed as one of the finest singers since the great days of Melba. Invitations from abroad came flooding in and since that year she has been wildly acclaimed in Milan, Paris, Palermo, Genoa, Venice, Naples, Glyndebourne, the Metropolitan Opera House, New York, and elsewhere.
Russell Braddon describes the woman and her art: the obstacles overcome, the ill-health, the grinding work, the disappointments and the difficulties which are an inseparable part of Joan Sutherland's achievement. He takes the reader into the singer's workshop; we see her at rehearsal, behind the scenes in the great opera houses of the world, in the recording studios, and with her family at home. He brings to life the most human of prima donnas so that the reader can share Joan Sutherland's ultimate triumphs, feeling for her the kind of joy and pride one feels in the success of a friend.

RUSSELL BRADDON, like Joan Sutherland, hails from
Sydney. He was born there in 1921, joined the Australian Army
at the outbreak of war, and was taken prisoner by the Japanese.
From his experiences of three and a half years as a prisoner-
of-war, came that great war book The Naked Island. He came to England in 1949 and has published some ten books, including biographies of Leonard Cheshire, V .C., and the French Resistance heroine, Nancy Wake. To write this biography he spent two years in the company of Joan Sutherland and her husband as they travelled across the world.