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Priscilla: The Hidden Life of an Englishwoman in Wartime France
Nicholas Shakespeare
€ 25.99
€ 18.88
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Description for Priscilla: The Hidden Life of an Englishwoman in Wartime France
Paperback. For Priscilla, pre-war Paris was an exciting carousel of suitors, soirees and heartbreak, and eventually a lavish wedding to a French aristocrat. But the arrival of the Nazi tanks signalled the end of life as a Vicomtesse, and the beginning of a precarious existence under German Occupation. Num Pages: 464 pages. BIC Classification: 1DDF; 3JJH; BGH; HBJD; HBLW; HBWQ. Category: (G) General (US: Trade). Dimension: 139 x 201 x 34. Weight in Grams: 434.
The astonishing true story of a young woman's adventures, and misadventures, in the dangerous world of Nazi-occupied France.
For Priscilla, pre-war Paris was an exciting carousel of suitors, soirées and heartbreak, and eventually a lavish wedding to a French aristocrat.
But the arrival of the Nazi tanks signalled the end of life as a Vicomtesse, and the beginning of a precarious existence under German Occupation.
Over half a century later, her nephew, Nicholas Shakespeare, found a box of Priscilla's notebooks and journals. He began investigating the rumours that she had escaped a prisoner-of-war camp and fought for the Resistance - and he finally unearthed the truth behind suspicions of disreputable love affairs and far darker secrets.
Product Details
Publisher
Vintage
Format
Paperback
Publication date
2014
Condition
New
Number of Pages
464
Place of Publication
London, United Kingdom
ISBN
9780099555667
SKU
V9780099555667
Shipping Time
Usually ships in 4 to 8 working days
Ref
99-2
About Nicholas Shakespeare
Nicholas Shakespeare was born in Worcester in 1957 and grew up in the Far East and Latin America. He is a prize-winning novelist and biographer and Priscilla draws on his talents in both genres.
Reviews for Priscilla: The Hidden Life of an Englishwoman in Wartime France
A pin-sharp biography which unfurls like gripping fiction… wonderful, haunting, thought-provoking
Melanie Reid
The Times
I have not read a better portrait of the moral impossibility of that time and place for people, like Priscilla, who found themselves trapped in it... A wonderful book
Daily Telegraph
As Shakespeare acknowledges, his aunt’s is one of millions of wartime stories. But thanks to the extensive paperwork, and his energetic digging, he creates a detailed and vivid narrative. This is a moving, and constantly surprising story
Matthew Bell
Independent on Sunday
So gripping it reads like a novel
Rachel Johnson
Evening Standard
This mysterious story of the Occupation in France has all the qualities of a fascinating novel, with exquisite social, sexual and moral nuance
Antony Beevor Shakespeare offers a nuanced and detailed psychological study of the effect of the Second World war on an ordinary woman. The result is just as absorbing as any biography of a war hero
Sunday Times
Nicholas Shakespeare has employed all his superb gifts as a writer to tell the picaresque tale of his aunt in wartime occupied France. Priscilla is a femme fatale worthy of fiction, and the author traces her tangled, troubled, romantic and often tragically unromantic experiences through one of the most dreadful periods of 20th-century history
Max Hastings Priscilla brilliantly exposes the tangled complexities behind that question so easily asked from the comfort of a peacetime armchair: “What would I have done?"
Observer
Priscilla's descent into hell runs eerily parallel to that of France itself; Faustian, fascinating and in the end extremely sad
Sebastian Faulks
Observer, Books of the Year
An account of the author’s aunt’s life in France under the Nazis. Her descent parallels that of France: Grim but fascinating
Sebastian Faulks
Observer
Melanie Reid
The Times
I have not read a better portrait of the moral impossibility of that time and place for people, like Priscilla, who found themselves trapped in it... A wonderful book
Daily Telegraph
As Shakespeare acknowledges, his aunt’s is one of millions of wartime stories. But thanks to the extensive paperwork, and his energetic digging, he creates a detailed and vivid narrative. This is a moving, and constantly surprising story
Matthew Bell
Independent on Sunday
So gripping it reads like a novel
Rachel Johnson
Evening Standard
This mysterious story of the Occupation in France has all the qualities of a fascinating novel, with exquisite social, sexual and moral nuance
Antony Beevor Shakespeare offers a nuanced and detailed psychological study of the effect of the Second World war on an ordinary woman. The result is just as absorbing as any biography of a war hero
Sunday Times
Nicholas Shakespeare has employed all his superb gifts as a writer to tell the picaresque tale of his aunt in wartime occupied France. Priscilla is a femme fatale worthy of fiction, and the author traces her tangled, troubled, romantic and often tragically unromantic experiences through one of the most dreadful periods of 20th-century history
Max Hastings Priscilla brilliantly exposes the tangled complexities behind that question so easily asked from the comfort of a peacetime armchair: “What would I have done?"
Observer
Priscilla's descent into hell runs eerily parallel to that of France itself; Faustian, fascinating and in the end extremely sad
Sebastian Faulks
Observer, Books of the Year
An account of the author’s aunt’s life in France under the Nazis. Her descent parallels that of France: Grim but fascinating
Sebastian Faulks
Observer