But in the story of Mata Hari, there was one thing that needed no sexing-up - Mata herself. Sex was the driving force of her life. In the little Dutch town where she grew up, her shopkeeper father lavished extremes of affection on his "little princess". It made her vain, self-centred and spoilt, and with an insatiable longing for male attention. At school, the 16-year-old bedded the headmaster. Was he the seducer or her? No one knows, but this was 1893 and it was the girl who was sent home in shame. The restless teenager now set about finding a man to take her away from the stuffiness of Dutch society.