If you were a fan of pop music in the Sixties, you will remember Dusty Springfield. Born Mary O’Brien, a Catholic girl born in West Hampstead, her haunting voice was often to be heard on transistor radios, while her striking peroxide blonde hair and heavy eye make-up made her a symbol of Swinging London. The person behind the voice and the look was more complex than you might have suspected. Karen Bartlett tells us that “even more than wanting to be the best, she wanted to be someone else”. Norma Tanega, one of her former lovers, said that what Springfield really wanted was “to be straight, to be a good Catholic, and to be black”. Even on listening to her masterpiece, the 1968 album Dusty in Memphis, she lamented that it was such a “white” album.