If many of the most macho males in Hollywood history have been proven to be gay, does it follow that many of the sexiest sirens of the silver screen were, in fact, lesbian? Axel Madsen claims to have unearthed Hollywood's greatest secret in this study of the women known as the "sewing circle" - Marlene Dietrich, Tallulah Bankhead, Judy Garland, Barbara Stanwyck, Joan Crawford and, above all, Greta Garbo. Much of his evidence revolves around the affairs of the eccentric poet and playwright Mercedes de Acosta; and he has a resolutely single-minded approach to the interpretation of classic movie scenes which will tempt the most sceptical of readers to rebel - but he does, to be fair, seem to have a point, and he makes it, on the whole, sympathetically.
