Most people have heard of Timothy Leary, the counterculture figure of ‘turn on, tune in, drop out’ fame. But what of his wife, Rosemary Woodruff? Currently, she hasn’t even got a page on Wikipedia. However, she was a major force in the psychedelic scene and she had much influence on her husband’s success, making sacrifices for him to what seemed little reward. This book is a biography of Rosemary, from her early days, to her meeting with Timothy, through to breaking him out of jail, their life on the run, and the aftermath. They reconnected much later in life, when Timothy had become ill. Although he hadn’t treated the ‘goddess’ (as some described her) as well as she deserved, they had a spark. I hadn’t heard of Rosemary before, so the author of this book did a great job at convincing me of Rosemary’s personality and qualities. A huge amount of research and enthusiasm has clearly gone into the book, making it a rewarding read. The only aspect that I struggled with was the US legal system, as the Learys were always under various threats and imprisonments. Rosemary’s passing in 2002 is not the end of the book, as her archive was eventually acquired by New York Public Library, allowing her story to be told.

Published by Canongate, 2025.