pellard

Written in the first person Voices of Rosalind describes the slow descent of a very intelligent and beautiful woman into madness. From her time as a precocious seven year old convent schoolgirl studying for her First Confession and First Holy Communion, worrying about Hell and having nightmares and her meeting little Robert, to turmoil and guilt over her sexuality as a thoughtful and articulate fourteen year old, Rosalind goes out into her world of dance and song and acting and becomes a leading star of the London stage.The gruelling workload and her feeling of being used for her beauty start a mental disintegration. She leaves the theatre and becomes a croupier. Starts taking drugs and spending more time with her love, Robert. Rosalind and Robert both quit Catholicism but the nightmares continue. Not long after a romantic night with Robert and his previous girlfriend Squirrel. Rosalind is ’sectioned’ and committed to a mental hospital where she learns from Robert that she has a son Orlando from their ménage à trois and where she spends a total of eighteen years. In her effort to escape she reignites her theatre talents and mounts a mad panto, Sleeping Beauty, secretly using the inmates as the performers in her effort to prove that she is not mad. Rosalind retires to the Paris she loves but stops taking her medication. Robert arrives and they live in a world of happiness, chaos, schitzophrenia, haute cuisine and fine wine as she becomes Audrey Hepburn.