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Books

Blonde, beautiful — and desperate to survive in Nazi France

Nicholas Shakespeare recounts his aunt's eventful story in Priscilla: The Hidden Life of the Englishwoman in Occupied France

16 November 2013

9:00 AM

16 November 2013

9:00 AM

Priscilla: The Hidden Life of an Englishwoman in Occupied France Nicholas Shakespeare

Harvill Secker, pp.425, £18.99, ISBN: 9781846554834

Around 200 Englishwomen lived through the German Occupation of Paris. Nicholas Shakespeare’s aunt Priscilla was one. Men in the street stopped to gaze at this blonde with the careless allure and raw beauty of Grace Kelly. Some fell instantly in love.

Her second mother-in-law thought her face showed truth and sincerity, and the reader shares this impression of integrity under duress.

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