'I am such a free spirit, am I not?' she said. 'Free to be despised.' Fiery, flirtatious, the femme fatale of Sunnydowns, Celia Wylde sets tongues wagging and hearts breaking as she cuts a swathe through polite society in the fledgling Canterbury province. None among the ladies can match her style. And few men can resist her, although young Richard Raleigh earnestly tries to - until sympathy and idealism enflame his infatuation. The Siren Celia turns Victorian morality on its head, subverting the rules, exposing its hypocrises and scandalising its hapless guardians. Celia lives outside convention and shines brilliantly at the centre of Stevan Eldred-Grigg's fiercely funny tale of greed, lust and double-dealing among New Zealand's ruling classes.