The Woman on the Bonnet
Forbidden Love, an Aristocrat's Secret Daughter, and the Tragedy Behind the Rolls-Royce Spirit of Ecstasy
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The Woman on the Bonnet
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Narrated by:
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Katy Pye
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By:
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Margot Dorée
You have seen her ten thousand times, on the prow of every Rolls-Royce ever built: the little silver woman leaning into the wind. You have never known her name.
She was Eleanor Thornton. Born in a clerk's house in south London, she invented a self the world would make way for, ran the most glamorous motoring magazine of the Edwardian age, and for fifteen years loved a man she was never once permitted to claim: John, Lord Montagu of Beaulieu. She bore him a daughter in secret and gave her away to keep her safe. She became, in silver, the most admired woman in the world, the model for the Spirit of Ecstasy, and no one was ever told. And on 30 December 1915, four minutes after a torpedo struck the liner Persia, the sea took everything but the silver.
Based on a true story, The Woman on the Bonnet restores a name the world spent a century not knowing. For listeners of The Paris Wife and The Aviator's Wife: a sweeping novel of forbidden love, hidden motherhood, and the woman who rides in front of everything.
©2026 Margot Dorée (P)2026 Margot Dorée