THE DAILY MAIL

London, England

14 December 1956

Artist Falls, 40 ft from her Bedroom.

Miss Nina Hamnett, 65-year-old artist, sculptress, and author, was critically injured when she fell 40 ft. from a second-floor flat in Westbourne-terrace, Paddington, W., yesterday.

She was taken to Paddington General Hospital with multiple injuries. She is believed to have fallen while looking out of her bedroom window.

Her book, "Laughing Torso," was hailed as one of the frankest and liveliest pictures of Bohemian life in modern days.

Sold in a pub

It led to a sensational libel action when novelist Aleister Crowley, sued her for libel because he alleged that her book imputed that he had practised "black magic." He lost the case.

Miss Hamnett was once described by Augustus John as one of the four best English women painters.

Her drawings of London statues were used to illustrate a book by Osbert Sitwell.

Early this year she published a second book, "Is She a Lady?"—light-hearted reminiscences of the people she had met.