Annette Kellerman, Australian Mermaid

Champion swimmer, trailblazer and film idol - the adventurous life of our first Hollywood superstar, by the bestselling author of Sister Viv, Mrs Kelly, Hudson Fysh, Banks and Banjo

From the moment she was born in 1886, Annette Kellerman was a force of nature. After a diagnosis of rickets as a young girl she took up swimming, and her extraordinary tenacity and bravery made her an Australian champion, beating boys, breaking records, and astonishing huge crowds by diving from great heights.

At eighteen, Annette had her sights set on swimming the English Channel and challenging endurance records in the Thames, and late in the Seine, Boston Harbour and the Danube - and famously scandalized the public with her one-piece swimming costume, which changed fashion forever and drew legions of women into the water, allowing them to swim freely.

Thrilling audiences on both sides of the Atlantic with her breathtaking vaudeville act, beauty and athleticism, she became famous as 'The Perfect Woman', and Hollywood swiftly embraced her. By 1914 she was a silent film superstar and sex symbol thanks for her risque costumes - and sometimes no costume at all.

Annette's appetite for excitement and thrills was legendary - once flinging herself into a pool of live crocodiles for one film and jumping from the wings of a biplane for another. But she also had a shrewd business mind, lecturing and publishing books about fitness and designing her clothing range, all to help women become healthier, stronger and more beautiful.

Kellerman was one of the highest-paid entertainers of her time and a world-wide celebrity, but despite her fame she saw her promotion of health, fitness and independence for women as her greatest achievement, and her influence and spirit changed the lives of millions.