Priscilla Audiobook By Nicholas Shakespeare cover art

Priscilla

The Hidden Life of an Englishwoman in Wartime France

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Priscilla

By: Nicholas Shakespeare
Narrated by: Nicholas Shakespeare
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Priscilla: The Hidden Life of an Englishwoman in Wartime France by Nicholas Shakespeare is a transcendent work of narrative nonfiction in the vein of The Hare with Amber Eyes.

When Nicholas Shakespeare stumbled across a trunk full of his late aunt's personal belongings, he was unaware of where this discovery would take him and what he would learn about her hidden past. The glamorous, mysterious figure he remembered from his childhood was very different from the morally ambiguous young woman who emerged from the trove of love letters, journals, and photographs, surrounded by suitors and living the precarious existence of a British citizen in a country controlled by the enemy during World War II.

As a young boy, Shakespeare had always believed that his aunt was a member of the Resistance and had been tortured by the Germans. The truth turned out to be far more complicated.

Piecing together fragments of his aunt's remarkable and tragic story, Priscilla is at once a stunning story of detection, a loving portrait of a flawed woman trying to survive in terrible times, and a spellbinding slice of history.

©2013 Nicholas Shakespeare (P)2020 Tantor 20th Century Military Modern Wars & Conflicts Women World World War II War Imperialism German Occupation
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Nicholas Shakespeare’s narrative follows his own search for truth about his aunt. His discoveries reveal her struggle to survive during a painful childhood, then the Nazi occupation of France, then through uneven post-war years. Through her beauty and charm she floated well above the muddy scrabble of survival. She wore fur coats and dined at Maxim’s. She did it through the beneficence of her lovers. She accepted gifts from and fraternized with Germans and collaborators. Her life in Paris and afterward was lived on a bigger stage than most lives are lived… adding a wider interest than most flawed lives during the occupation and after
Her benefactors and their relationships was her heavy secret after the war.
Shakespeare’s delivery is clear and carry’s the emotive force of the nephew who finds out the secrets but wants to find a way to still love and admire his aunt. His narrative feels honest and conveys insight about loving flawed family members.

Muddled glamour in a relative’s life

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