Looks like sunny spring Sundays are not for writing. This morning, on the middle of a sentence, I had a sudden irresistible urge to research New York in the 1930s, which is where my novel begins. And what better to immerse myself in than my latest find, the New York Public Library’s dog-earred copy of […]
Awestruck at the majestic sweep of the grand Paris boulevards, we tend to forget that the city was, until fairly recently, a cramped medieval labyrinth of twisting cobbled alleys and ancient crumbling buildings. When in the 1870s Haussmann commenced his massive modernization, photographer Charles Marville was there with his big unwieldy camera to document it. […]
A good host always tidies up the house before the guests arrive. But some hosts have more to shove into the closet than others. For the 1936 Olympics, Hitler got busy sweeping the more blatant horrors of his regime under the rug. He even went so far as to remove official anti-Jewish signs from Berlin […]
Spies lurked everywhere in Paris 1936,crouching behind the croissants, whispering behind their whiskies, sneaking under the snails. Nazis spies, of course, but also Italian, British, Red Russians, White Russians, and equal-opportunity spies who would work for the highest bidder, no matter what their politics. Plenty of American spies, too, of course, posing behind respectable facades […]
In the 1930s refugees poured into France, fleeing Hitler’s reign of terror in Germany . Mainly Jews, but also gays, communists, radicals, intellectuals — all those persecuted by the Nazis found a home in France. At least, that is, until the Germans occupied France in 1940 and set up their puppet Vichy regime. Yet France, this […]
Just saw Hitchcock’s delicious 1938 mystery, “The Lady Vanishes.” The genre is that seemingly impossible contradiction in terms, a comic thriller. It’s all about spying, of course, which was the great theme of the pre-war years. Spoiler alert! Miss Froy, the kindly old English governess turns out to be a British spy, trying to get a […]
In 1936, to get to Europe from the US, you had to sail. It took a bit less than a week, and crossing the tempestuous Atlantic was not for the faint of heart. Gladys’s diary publishers included a helpful guide to life on board ship, remedies for the dreaded seasickness, and advice on hat pools, in […]
Novel of a wardrobe: A chic Parisienne from the Belle Epoque through the Thirties Musée Carnavalet, Paris 17 october 2013 – 16 March 2014 Fabulous fashions to dream about, relating the story of a woman of exquisite taste — and the means to indulge it. Daughter of a dressmaker, she was one of the first saleswomen […]
The facts are tantalizingly few. When in 2010 a 91-year-old woman died in the south of France, her estate was found to include a Paris apartment, situated somewhere between Pigalle and the Opera. The woman, Madame de Florian, had abandoned it in 1942, and for nearly 70 years, the forgotten apartment lay in darkness and […]
She was the most elegant Frenchwoman of her time. The finest designs and the costliest materials were lavished upon her breathtaking form. Her beauty seduced men on both sides of the Atlantic. But after reigning for four short years, she met a tragic end. When launched in 1935, the SS Normandie was the most […]