Books
Escape to Provence
Maureen Emerson
Escape to Provence is a factual biography of two women, one English,one American,who lived in the south of France in the first part of the last century. The Englishwoman was Winifred (Peggy) Fortescue,whose book Perfume from Provence was a best-seller of the 1930s and '40s.She also wrote five other books on her life in England and Provence.Peggy was the wife of Sir John Fortescue, librarian to Edward VII and George V at the Royal Library at Windsor. John Fortescue was also the historian of the British Army, whose work in thirteen volumes earned him the Chesney Gold Medal. Peggy's close friend, Elisabeth Parrish Starr,was born in Philadelphia.Her life was closely entwined with that of the family of President Theodore Roosevelt. The story follows the two women and the friends they drew around them in Opio, in the hills above Cannes,during the 1930s. Their lives changed forever with the general mobilisation in France, at which point they founded an aid programme Les Foyers des Soldats de France, as their homes became the Etat Major for the defence of the Alpes Maritimes.When the threat of occupation grew, Winifred fled to Sussex, where she spent the war years giving lectures to raise funds for the Free French. Here she befriended the damaged Spitfire pilot,Richard Hillary and it was she who encouraged him to begin writing The Last Enemy. Elisabeth stayed behind in her home in Opio, working with a refugee programme and hiding displaced children. In 1945 Peggy returned to Opio, having launched a Memorial Fund for the Children of Provence in Elisabeth's name.Published by; Chapter and Verse Books, King's House, 8 Church Street, Cuckfield, West Sussex RH17 5JZ
ISBN: 9780955832109