Edith Garrud stood under 5ft but threw policemen, trained the suffragette Bodyguard and hid protesters' weapons in her Soho dojo. Her full story.

Aimée Crocker survived a honeymoon train wreck, got tattooed in 1899, kept a boa constrictor and married a prince at 60. Here's the heiress's real story.

Vali Myers left home in Melbourne at 14, slept rough in post-war Paris, got thrown out of France for vagrancy and spent the best part of 50 years in a crumbling domed cottage in a ravine above Positano, with no electricity, no plumbing and somewhere north of 100 animals. Along the way she inspired a Tennessee Williams character, tattooed Patti Smith's knee, asked Donovan to pay her in goats and got told by Salvador Dalí to put on a show. The locals called her a witch. She was