Sublime

A combination of endurance, learning, ideas, energy and decisiveness was how a woman whom few people expected anything of, with no senior Cabinet experience and a very small support base, became a great world leader, out of nowhere, aged fifty.

‘Few expected greatness of her until she was nearly fifty.’ Even the few people who strongly believed in her abilities never imagined she might be Prime Minister, let alone a global stateswoman who would play a role in ending the Cold War.

Wallis Simpson,

Unlike most of the village women who embark on careers with foreign men, Noelline is educated, has completed two years at the lycée run by the sugar refinery at Ankazobe. She writes a fair hand in French orthography, can use a computer, and speaks good French and Italian. Besides her intelligence, her undeniable energy, and a reputed genius for sex