In the 1930s, Lady Houston was one of the richest women in England and a household name. Chiefly remembered now for her involvement with the development of the Spitfire aircraft and for being a prominent suffragette, this biography tells a more complete story: how she acquired her enormous wealth, and how she spent it. From an unpromising start as the teenage mistress of a prosperous brewer, Lucy leveraged the wealth and status of successive lovers until she gained sole control of her third husband's vast fortune. Not content with the normal pursuits of the affluent, Lucy turned her attention to conservative politics by buying and running her own newspaper. This book reveals the many activities she financed.