Con artist Violet Charlesworth was a woman before her time and able to beat the male dominated society at its own game.
The beautiful young heiress to a fortune was, for a brief time during the Edwardian period, the most famous woman in the world.
Hunted across the globe, pursued by the press and living the life of royalty, Violet really lived a full and daring life.
The confidence trickster managed to fool the world three times. With country estates, zooming cars, furs, fabulous jewels and expensive tastes, she lived life in the fast lane until her lifestyle and her creditors finally caught up with her on a lonely, clifftop road in North Wales.
Now her life is the source of a new and exciting book which relives her incredibly exciting lifestyle. Clever, resourceful, cunning, ruthless and beautiful, Violet had it all, until her luxurious motorcar smashed through a low wall on a dangerous bend in a moonlit, clifftop road, hurling her into the waves below.
As the search for her body continued, the shocking truth about her life finally emerged. In the era of the suffragettes, Violet found another way to beat male-dominated society at its own game.
Setting the bar for all female con artists to follow, she changed women’s fashion, her exploits entered the lexicon of the English language, and she rapidly became more famous than the King and the Prime Minister.
She even had a racehorse named after her. Violet ruined lives and reputations, broke promises and shattered dreams but, like all great con artists, left us guessing until the end. And she did it all with style and panache.
Author Mark Bridgeman brings Violet’s exciting story to life in his new book. A successful writer, Mark has appeared on ITV, Channel 5, the History Channel and BBC TV and radio. He is the author of The Nearly Man which was nominated for the John Byrne Award and the James Tait Black Award, and this is currently in development with a leading Hollywood studio for television and film.
Published: 24th April 2025
ISBN 978-184995-597-3
UK Price: £18.99
Format: 233 x 157mm, Softback
Pages: 256 pages with black & white illustrations
Nothing for Something, The Violet Charlesworth Story – The Edwardian Con Artist who Fooled the World
By Mark Bridgeman
Published by Whittles Publishing
Nothing for Something – The Violet Charlesworth Story is available to buy on the Whittles Publishing website, Blackwell’s, from WH Smith and on Amazon.
Author Bio:
Rebecca Hay is an experienced travel writer and member of The British Guild of Travel Writers. Follow her adventures with her family on Twitter and Instagram @emojiadventurer and on Facebook via EmojiAdventurers2.
Book cover courtesy of Whittles Publishing
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