The Independent asks whether Mata Hari was she a double agent meant to disappoint and exasperate both sides, alas, no one really knows...files to be released in 2017 may assist but the mystery is so much more fun and inspires another eccentric, Edith Sitwell and her poem about the 'great Popinjay'
Smelling his nosegay:
In cages like grots
The birds sang gavottes.
'Herodiade's flea
Was named sweet Amanda,
She danced like a lady
From here to Uganda.
Oh, what a dance was there!
Long-haired, the candle
Salome-like tossed her hair
To a dance tune by Handel.' . . .
Dance they still? Then came
Courtier Death,
Blew out the candle flame
With civet breath
One women spins her charm for as long as possible while another plays out her wit while perfectly still, so still in fact Jane Brown captures the eccentric Dame in repose
