Behind the Page
Ysenda Maxtone Graham, The Real Mrs Miniver
The exemplary middle-class housewife Mrs Miniver, whose doings first appeared on the Court pages of The Times, was said by Winston Churchill to have done more for the Allied cause in the Second World War than a flotilla of battleships. Everyone assumed that Mrs Miniver was a portrait of her creator, Jan Struther, but the reality was very different. Ysenda, Jan’s granddaughter, draws a vivid portrait of this fascinating and contradictory woman whose own creation ultimately forced her to lead a painful double life.
Jennie Erdal, Ghosting
‘A large sapphire on the lapel of a bold striped suit, a vivid silk tie so bright that it dazzles . . . on his fingers a collection of jewels . . .’ – this is the man Jennie Erdal calls ‘Tiger’, the flamboyant figure at the centre of Ghosting, the strange and gripping story of the twenty years in which she became his ghost writer. Erdal created a whole literary oeuvre in his name, and even turned his ludicrous plot ideas and sexual fantasies into novels which were seriously and admiringly reviewed. Ghosting is a wickedly funny book, but it is also a thoughtful look at deception and self-deception, and the masks that most of us wear.
Common Sense Dancing
She began life as the fictional heroine of a small newspaper column and went on, via American bestsellerdom and a celebrated wartime Hollywood movie, to have the kind of impact on world affairs that...
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