A Prima Donna’s progress: the autobiography of Joan Sutherland. Joan Sutherland. 1997.

Brought up in a musical family, in between the wars in Australia, Joan Sutherland saw early success in local singing competitions. Finding enough encouragement to go to London in pursuit of her long-held ambition to sing at Covent Garden. Assisted by an Australian friend, Richard Bonynge, who was to become her husband  and key musical partner, she began a sequence of dizzying triumphs across a wide repertoire, from Handel and Mozart to Bellini and Donizetti. Her definitive performances in operas such as Lucia de Lamermoor and Norma have forged ineradicable links with some of the most challenging coloratura roles in the repetoire.