Telling Tales: The Fabulous Lives of Anita Leslie

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'Enormously entertaining A witty, elegantly written account of the many lives of a flawed, unconventional woman. Fascinating' Marian Keyes ----- The poignant biography of Anita Leslie, only woman to have been awarded both the Croix de Guerre and the Africa Star in WWII. Anita Leslie (1914-85), best known for popular biographies of her relatives including Jennie Churchill, Winston's mother, was also an unlikely war heroine. In 1940, Anita volunteered as an ambulance driver. By the end of the war, she was the only woman to have been awarded both the Africa Star and the Croix de Guerre, alongside the other medals for her service across all four fronts of WWII, as recounted in her remarkable memoir Train to Nowhere. In this revealing biography, Penny Perrick brings Anita to life: her complicated early years, her love for her children, her passion for Ireland, her career as a writer, and the ongoing family drama about Castle Leslie. Telling Tales is a scintillating and poignant account of this flamboyant woman.

Reviews

Enormously entertaining A witty, elegantly written account of the many lives of a flawed, unconventional woman. Fascinating -- Marian Keyes
Wonderfully involving and often very funny -- Roy Foster
A fascinating look at the life of an aristocratic war hero with a dark side * Irish Sunday Times *
Perrick's spellbinding Telling Tales: The Fabulous Lives of Anita Leslie portrays her subject's shortcomings, but also her qualities -- David Platzer * The Tablet *
A picture of an era as well as an individual, full of spirit and panache -- Linda Kelly, author of 'Women of the French revolution'
Her determination in sometimes grim circumstances to paint the world in sunshine showed the same kind of nonchalant heroism as her startling achievements during the war * Irish Times *

Author Bio

Penny Perrick, who lived for many years in the west of Ireland, was a fashion editor for Vogue, a columnist on The Sun and The Times and a fiction editor for The Sunday Times. She is also a novelist and the author of Something to Hide, a biography of the poet Sheila Wingfield. Penny lives in London.