"The Blue Beast" - Power and Passion in The Great War

This is the story of three women who played significant roles in the course of the war. "The Blue Beast" was the Edwardian slang for sexual passion. The three women studied are: Emilie Grigsby, who claimed that she was "the mascot of the High Command" and under whose spell Lord Northcliffe and Charles Repington, among others, fell; then Winifred "Wendy" Bennet, who had a passionate affair with Sir John French; and finally The Hon. Sylvia Henley, who replaced Venetia Stanley as Herbert Asquith's "close confidante". The author paints an interesting story of power, passion and betrayal.