Marie Antoinette’s Head by Will Bashor

The author of this most intriguing and immaculately researched tome is, first and foremost, a Francophile with a true passion for court life during the epoch of Louis XVI. In truth, you’d need to be, in order to dig for the biographical details of the man whose sole responsibility was to ensure that the Queen’s hairdo was constantly at its most ostentatious and impressive.

The coiffeur in question was Léonard Autié, a vainglorious provincial barber from Gascony who rose to the top of his trade and became a confidante to the Queen, and his life is recalled via memoirs from key players, court documents and archived periodicals. As you’d expect, when you’re the only man in a household full of females, gossip, seduction and intrigue are never far away. The story of the man who invented the pouf is little short of eye-opening.