In the annals of Wild West desperadoes, Belle Starr is remembered as the Bandit Queen. Now Michael Wallis parses over a century of mythmaking to reveal the woman behind the renegade legend.

Starr was born Myra Maibelle Shirley in 1848 and was educated to be a Southern belle. Her early years were characterised by the chaotic violence of the American Civil War-she was traumatised by the death of her brother while riding with a guerilla group supporting the Confederate Army and she swore revenge against all Yankees, becoming a "friend to any brave and gallant outlaw".

Turning a redemptive eye to Belle Starr's legacy, Wallis crafts portrait of a woman demonised for refusing to accept genteel Victorian ideals, who chose to live her life outside the law, riding with a pearl-handled Colt .45 strapped to her hip.