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Otherwise known as the Ranee of Sarawak, Sylvia Brooke (1885-1971) was the consort (and by custom, slave) of Sir Vyner Brooke, the last White Rajah, whose family ruled the jungle kingdom of Sarawak on Borneo. Each White Rajah had the power of life and death over his subjects - Malays, Chinese and headhunting Dyak tribesmen. The regime of the White Rajahs was long deemed superior to any in the British Empire, but by the 1930s there was a sharp decline in their power and prestige. At the centre of Sarawak's perceived decadence was Ranee Sylvia, extravagantly-dressed socialite and incorrigible self-dramatist, described by the press as 'that most charming of despots. The Colonial Office branded her 'a dangerous woman, full of Machiavellian schemes to alter the succession, and spectacularly vulgar in her behaviour'. Sylvia, Queen of the Headhunters chronicles the extraordinary life of the Ranee, with a supporting cast including Sylvia's father, a celebrated courtier in love with his own son; her whimsical and sexually incontinent husband, Rajah Vyner and the Rajah's unhinged, Rasputinesque private secretary.

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