Bird of Paradise

Ada Leverson (1862-1933), nee Beddington was a British author who sometimes wrote under the pen name Elaine. She began writing during the 1890s, as a contributor to Black and White, Punch, and The Yellow Book. She was a loyal friend to Oscar Wilde, who called her Sphinx; in the 1997 film Wilde she is played by Zoe Wanamaker. She was a wit, and a friend of Max Beerbohm; her writing has been compared to Beerbohm's, and the stories of Saki. She was also a friend of George Moore; Osbert Sitwell in Great Morning has an anecdote in which she tries, unsuccessfully, to get Moore to see the young William Walton. She was a part of the Sitwells' circle - Sacheverall Sitwell dedicated a poetry collection to her. She wrote The Twelfth Hour (1907), Love's Shadow (1908), The Limit (1911), Tenterhooks (1912), Bird of Paradise (1914), Love at Second Sight (1916) and Letters to the Sphinx from Oscar Wilde (1930).