The extraordinary life of Sophie de Tott, an artist, writer, musician and secret agent who witnessed the French Revolution first hand. Born in Constantinople, she came to France as a young woman and resisted all attempts to force her into a marriage of convenience, preferring to train as a painter and be independent. She was the protegée of the Comtesse de Tessé, who held a leading intellectual salon in Paris, until they had to flee the country during the revolution. De Tott lived in Switzerland and Germany where she earned her living as a portrait painter before coming as a refugee to England. She wrote a tragic novel that mirrored her own unhappy love-life. She knew many of the most famous people of her time, including the French monarchs and Thomas Jefferson, President of the United States. This biography becomes a detective story in seeking to unravel the truth about her secret love-child and the lengths she went to in order to avoid scandal. Julia Gasper is the author of "Elizabeth Craven: Writer, Feminist and European".