A Rothschild by birth and a Baroness by marriage, beautiful, spirited Pannonica – known as Nica – seemed to have it all: children, a handsome husband and a trust fund. But in the early 1950s she heard a piece by the jazz legend Thelonious Monk. The music overtook her like a magic spell, and she abandoned her marriage to go and find him.

The Baroness traces Nica's extraordinary, thrilling journey – from England's stately homes to the battlefields of Africa, passing under the shadow of the Holocaust, and finally to the creative ferment of the New York jazz scene.

Hannah Rothschild's search to solve the mystery of her rebellious great-aunt draws on their long friendship and years of meticulous research and interviews.