Big book of scandalous Australian women. Kay Saunders. 2014.

Some are wicked, some are scandalous, some are downright mean and ruthless and some just went a little bit sideways. Meet the femmes who challenge our ideas of what women should be - together in one big book.

Tilly Devine, Mary Bryant, Helena Rubinstein, Lola Montez - these women defied the restricted times they lived in, seducing men of power and betraying them, going from streetwalkers to standover merchants, rewriting their past as they rose to the top, or just taking to a life of crime with gusto.

Then there are the darker dames: women who have killed their husbands, lovers, relatives, friends and children for a variety of reasons. The backyard abortionists, the poisoners, the women in lovers’ pacts, the women who sought to protect themselves from violence. All of them are deadly and fascinating.