Sharon Wright

Sex, Scandal and Mrs Sage

With more twists than a hit farce, a Georgian playwright could not have imagined a better plot for the real-life Mrs Sage balloon show of 1785.

Letitia Sage was a West End actress who succeeded in becoming the first Englishwomen to fly. Her steely determination and plunging neckline brought va-va-voom to the balloon as she traded the 18th-century stage for fame among the clouds.

Sharon tells the hilarious, heroic saga of PR disasters, floppy gasbags and rude cartoons that dogged Letitia's history-making London lift off - and explodes the myth that she invented the Mile High Club (the truth is even saucier).