French courtesan, dancer and writer Liane de Pougy was BOTD in 1869. Born in La Flèche, she was educated in a convent, and eloped with naval officer Joseph Pourpe when she was 16. She endured years of physical abuse from her husband before fleeing the marriage, leaving her young son to be raised by grandparents. She moved to Paris, supporting herself with sex work, and became a heavy user of cocaine and opium. Under the tutelage of the Valtesse de la Bigne, she became a courtesan, learning to sing, though her acting lessons with Sarah Bernhardt were cut short after Bernhardt advised her to keep her “pretty mouth shut” when on stage. She became a star attraction at the Folies Bergère, and so well-known that she was imitated by female impersonator Herbert Pollitt. She had a number of female lovers, including cross-dressing aristocrat Mathilde de Morny and American society hostess Natalie Clifford Barney. De Pougy published a series of novels based on her life as a courtesan, most notably 1901’s Idylle Saphique (Sapphic Idyll), an indiscreet account of her relationship with Barney. As her performance career faded, she married Prince Georges Ghika in 1910, with whom she had a son. After her son was killed in World War One, she turned to Catholicism, becoming the benefactress of a children’s hospital. During World War Two, she and her husband moved to Switzerland. After his death, she joined a convent of Dominican nuns, dying in 1950, aged 81. Her diaries were published posthumously as Mes cahiers bleus (My Blue Notebooks), providing vivid details about her life in Belle Époque Parisian society and her love affairs.