The Crown Recap Episode 3: ‘Windsor’

This episode was slightly different from the previous two episodes with a focus on the Duke of Windsor.  We get a flashback to Edward VIII signing the act of abdication on December 10, 1936 with Wallis Simpson looking over his shoulder and then giving his radio broadcast to the nation. The Duke is played by Alex Jennings who played Prince Charles in the film The Queen (also written by Peter Morgan), as well as Anthony Eden in Churchill’s Secret. He does an excellent job of portraying a man who still acts like a small child even in middle-age, but it also shows some sympathy towards him, cut off from his family. He strikes a rather sad and pathetic figure. Historically, Wallis was not with the Duke when he made his radio broadcast, she’d decamped to the south of France to keep out of the line of fire. There are some lovely moments between the Wallis and Edward in this episode, and the actress playing the role is dressed divinely. 

Meanwhile the young Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret are freely playing with their parents, not aware yet of how their young lives are about to change. Flash-forward to 1952 and the Duke is heading to Britain for his brother’s funeral. This episode peels back even more layers of the onion by letting the audience in on exactly how the Royal Family felt about David’s decision to eschew his duty for love. It’s a nice bit of foreshadowing since later on in the series we will see Princess Margaret grappling with the same decision and making an altogether different choice. Things are still frosty between the Duke of Windsor and his family.  The Queen Mother blames the Duke for George VI’s early death.  Queen Mary is not feeling to warm towards her elder son either, she too blames him for George’s death and for shirking his duty.

They move on to the revelation of the Duke of Windsor’s secret nicknames for his royal relatives. The Queen Mother is ‘Cookie’ (ostensibly because of the rumors that Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon was the daughter of the family cook. Lady Colin Campbell goes into these rumors in more detail in her rather nasty biography of the Queen Mother. Also for being fat and common which is rich given that he married a twice- divorced woman!) and the new Queen is “Shirley Temple.’ When confronted by Queen, the Duke tries to save face by telling her that it was because she was so sweet, and cute and good just like Shirley Temple. Nice save HRH! When the Duke finally meets up with his mother, she spends most of their time together praising his younger, brother. “So wonderfully thoughtful and caring, an angel to his mother, his wife, and children.  I honestly believe he never thought of himself at all. He really was the perfect son.” The implication being that Bertie was everything that David was not. His meeting with the Queen Mother, Elizabeth and Princess Margaret is just as cold. The Queen Mother can barely stand to look at him, let alone let him touch her.  Afterwards, he writes a letter to Wallis, calling his family “a bunch of ice-flamed monsters,” and that’s one of the kinder things that he says about them! Still the Duke has an ulterior motive, he needs to try and keep communication open, because of his allowance, which the Queen Mother was just as soon end.

He tells his mother, Queen Mary, a sob story about hard it is for them to make ends meet. Living at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York and in a mansion just outside of Paris is expensive! He and Wallis need to be kept in the style to which they have become accustomed. It’s rather sickening to see the Duke pleading poverty when England was still going through rationing in 1952. While the Duke is trying to mend fences with his relations, Elizabeth is about to have her first meeting with Churchill. Before the meeting, Philip reminds her of two things: 1) The children will have his surname and 2) They will continue living at Clarence House.  After all, he spent so much time renovating it.

Of course neither of those two things get discussed.  Instead, Churchill and Elizabeth disagree about her coronation.  Elizabeth would like to have it sooner rather than later and Churchill thinks that 16 months from now is a grand idea.  “A long period between accession and coronation was of great value to your father.”  Elizabeth reminds Churchill that actually her father had 5 months since the date of Edward VIII’s coronation had already been set.  Later in the episode, Elizabeth brings up the two matters with Churchill who is aghast at both of them.

Meanwhile Lord Mountbatten is having a party where he exhorts his guests to raise a toast to the House of Mountbatten which is fairly cheeky and might smack of treason. Prince Ernst of Hanover (who is either the father or grandfather of the current Prince Ernst, husband of Princess Caroline of Monaco) scurries over to Queen Mary to tell her the news.  This scene is done partly in German as the Duke of Windsor listens in.  It was a nice reminder that not only Queen Mary but also the Duke were fluent in German. Queen Mary is also aghast that they should be drinking champagne when her son has just recently died! Tommy Lascelles tells Peter Townsend that the Queen Mother has asked for him to comptroller of her household.  He suggests not so subtly that Townsend should think about going back to the RAF. Apparently there are rumors that Townsend is a little too close to a certain brunette member of the household. Townsend basically tells him to stuff it. Later he informs Margaret that his wife is leaving him.

He tells her that it would be a grave mistake to change the name of the Royal House to Mountbatten. He reminds her that Prince Philip’s real last name was Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glucksburg of the Royal House of Greece and Denmark. Elizabeth is not one to be swayed, she may be a Queen but she is also a wife and a mother. Remember that she did promise to obey Philip at their wedding. Elizabeth is not dumb either, she knows that there are people who think that Churchill is past his prime and would like to see him resign, giving way to a young man like his nephew-in-law Anthony Eden. She tries to bargain with him, she will agree to the delay in her coronation, if he will support her in the matter regarding her husband’s name, and staying at Clarence House.  Good luck with that! The cabinet is totally not on board with either of those decisions.  Instead of telling the Queen himself, Churchill pawns off breaking the bad news to the Duke of Windsor.  In exchange, Churchill will push for Elizabeth to reinstate the Duke’s allowance.  Sneaky! Of course, the Duke has to ruin everything by trying to get Wallis the HRH.  He complains that it has been 17 years since the abdication, why are they still being so cruel to his wife? Edward really has no concept of what he did by abdicating, the lives he damaged. All he cares about his money and Wallis.

When the Duke meets with his niece, on the surface she is all smiles, but there is steel underneath. She gets her own digs in during their idle chatter, dissing his love of pugs and their gassiness and confronting him about the cruel nicknames like Shirley Temple.  The Duke realizes he has underestimated his niece, especially when she points out that he has never apologized to her for changing her life irrevocably. For the first time in the entire episode, The Duke is actually ashamed regarding his behavior.  He apologizes to her and then gently tells her that the two things that she wants (or really her husband wants) can’t be.  The House of Windsor will remain the house of Windsor and the whole clan must debunk to Buckingham Palace. The episode ends with the Duke heading back to his wife as crowds cheer him at the dock.  While his family may not love, the people still have some affection for him.

Philip is not please and acts like a whiny baby about the whole thing. “What kind of marriage is this? What kind of family? You’ve taken my career from me, you’ve taken my home, you’ve taken my name.” In real life, Philip remarked that he felt like a bloody amoeba. Upset by the whole drama, Philip convinces Peter Townsend to teach him how to fly.  See he really wanted to be in the RAF, but his uncle Mountbatten convinced him to join the Navy instead like his uncle and grandfather. Peter and Margaret had been having a rendezvous in his office when Philip arrives. Margaret hides but Philip notices a woman’s purse and teases Peter Townsend about it, not realizing that the woman in question is his sister-in-law.

This episode had pace and moved the story along nicely, as well as revealing more about the participants behind the scenes.  I still quibble with the portrayal of the Queen Mother, so far the portrait that we are given is of a very dour woman.  She has none of the joie de vivre that Helena Bonham Carter brought to the role in the Queen’s speech. Claire Foy is growing in the part as she assumes more of the mantel of responsibility.  The other big disappointment in this series thus far is also the portrayal of Prince Philip. Yes, Philip could stick his foot in his mouth, and yes being a Prince Consort had to suck at times, but I wish we could see more of him trying to find his footing in the role.  I mentioned this is my previous recap but Lord Mountbatten needs to be used for more than just a plot point. It’s real waste of Greg Wise, who thus far, has had little more to do than just show up and be handsome, which he does very well.

Other recaps: Tom and Lorenzo

The Crown Recap: Wolferton Splash and Hyde Park Corner (Episodes 1 & 2)

I have been waiting eagerly for new series The Crown to drop on Netflix ever since it was announced. November 4^th couldn’t come soon enough for me.  I took it as a good omen that the premiere date was midway between my birthday (November 2) and Guy Fawkes Day (November 5^th). So far I’ve watched the 1^st five episodes of the series and I have mixed feelings about it.  After watching the episodes, I did a little research to see how close the series is to what we know historically.  Apparently the Palace was very anxious about the series, particularly since writer Peter Morgan declined their help. They have nothing to worry about, the series is quite reverential in many ways. Almost too reverential.

The production values are absolutely first rate, I have no idea how much exactly the series is costing, although there are rumors that it is over $100 million dollars.  If that’s true, most of it is on the screen.  If you have ever watched The Royals or Reign, you’ll have noticed that their budgets hover around about $5 for each episode. In the first few episodes, the series has shown us Buckingham Palace, Sandringham, Marlborough House, No. 10 Downing Street, Broadlands, Westminster Abbey (or the equivalents).  There is a sweep to the series that is missing from The Royals and Reign. The viewer gets more of a sense of how little privacy royalty actually have.

Although none of the actors remotely resemble their counterparts, the performances are uniformly fantastic particularly Claire Foy as Princess Elizabeth soon to be Queen Elizabeth II.  However, the 1^st episode is very slow and not very engaging except for the very end. The first episode covers the years 1947 through 1951. In the very first episode, we get to see the eager young bride anxious to marry Philip. There is a sweet moment, where her fiancé manages to steal a quick kiss after the garter ceremony.  The series sort of squashes Prince Philip giving up his Greek titles and being made Duke of Edinburgh, etc. as well as receiving the Order of the Garter into one scene at the very beginning of the episode. There is no mention of the fact that it actually wasn’t necessary for him to have to do it.  Poor King George is coughing up blood in the bathroom and then lighting up a cigarette.  I admit those scenes gave me pause mainly because of how realistic they were. I’ve had relatives who’ve suffered from lung cancer who continued to smoke even after they on oxygen to breathe.  While Jared Harris a bit too robust physically for the King, I think that he aptly portrays a man who never wanted to be King but who once the mantle was thrust upon him, made the best of it. There is an interesting scene where he sings a rather dirty limerick while he’s getting dressed, it gives the viewer a glimpse of a man who was once a sailor just like his son-in-law.

The wedding scene is brief but spectacular, mad props to the costume designer who recreated not only Princess Elizabeth’s wedding dress but also the dresses of the maids of honor.  Princess Elizabeth is tentative in her vows while Philip gives her subtle encouragement.  Winston Churchill, who is no longer Prime Minister makes a grand entrance into the Abbey, which is remarked up on by Anthony Eden. Also so commentary about how Princess Elizabeth kept the word ‘obey’ in her marriage vows. There is a telling scene during the taking of the wedding photographs, where Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth discuss how Elizabeth got her way in marrying Philip since so many people were against the marriage in the government.  I wish that we had actually gotten to see a bit of that instead of rushing into the wedding scene.  I think it would have done a lot to establish just how much of an outsider Prince Philip was from the beginning.  Queen Elizabeth also makes mention of the fact that Philip is very German which is hysterical considering the King’s background.  I should mention that none of Prince Philip’s sisters were allowed to attend his wedding because of their marriages to Germans.  The Queen also makes a very catty comment about Philip’s mother having just gotten out a sanitarium, calling her a Hun dressed like a Nun.  Making fun of Princess Alice’s mental illness was a low blow and did nothing to give the viewer any idea of who this woman was.

There is a lovely moment after the ceremony where King George gives Elizabeth a movie camera as a wedding present. This leads to a lovely montage of the births of Prince Charles and Princess Anne as the years go by and we are suddenly in 1951. Princess Elizabeth and Philip are having a jolly old time in Malta. There are scenes of Philip playing with Prince Charles and Princess Anne which is interesting given that Charles and Anne actually stayed in England while Philip was stationed in Malta. The Princess would go back and forth to see them and do fulfill her duties.

Churchill is now back in power and the King is not doing so well.  The blood coughing has led him to need surgery in the fanciest operating room in the country, the ballroom at Buckingham Palace.  Seriously, there are chandeliers in the operating theatre! The Princess and Philip have flown back to England just in case.  The King has one of his lungs removed (at this point no one has yet mentioned the word cancer). There is a bizarre scene where Philip wanders into the operating theatre while the doctors and nurses are cleaning up. Princess Elizabeth is of course anxious to get back to Malta so that Philip can go on doing his naval duties but she soon realizes that this is not going to happen.  The King asks Elizabeth to take over the Commonwealth tour since he hasn’t fully recovered.  Before they leave, the King takes Philip out into a boat to do duck hunting, basically giving him a pep talk about supporting the Princess yada yada, duty etc. what the Crown really means.  It is basically a metaphor for what the whole series is about.

In Episode 2, the series starts to pick up steam.  Despite his surgery, the King is still coughing up blood. When he questions his doctors, they tell him that it is nothing out of the ordinary (in real life the King was never told that he had cancer). Later on, his doctor informs him that there are malignancies in his other lung. He asks how long he has but the doctor doesn’t know. While all this is going on, Anthony Eden (played by Jeremy Northam) decides to make a power play.  He cozies up to the King during a shooting party and tries to convince him to ask Churchill to resign.  The King however declines, thwarting Eden’s ambitions for the moment.

In Kenya, Princess Elizabeth and Philip are having a grand old time. We finally get to see the Philip who suffers from foot in mouth disease, making politically incorrect comments about several of the natives that they meet. Poor Matt Smith, whatever hair dye they are using to try and approximate the Prince’s blond hair doesn’t seem to want to stick.  His hair ranges from sort of blond to chestnut depending on the scene.  However, he’s managed to capture the charm and the action man aspects of the Prince, chafing at having nothing really to do but support his wife.  You get a sense of the warmth and affection that these two have for each other which has sustained them in almost 70 years of marriage.

At a house party at Sandringham, there is a lovely scene of Princess Margaret and the King singing a duet at the piano.  It echoes an earlier scene where Princess Margaret drives her father while he gives her advice on her driving skills.  In these brief scenes, you get a sense of the relationship between father and daughter, that Margaret was his joy.  I wish that there had been more scenes like that. Anyhoo, the inevitable happens and the King dies in his sleep. There is a particularly awful moment where Margaret goes into see her father’s body as they are preparing him for embalming. Seriously, who would want to see their father with a large poker sticking out of his body? It was seriously gross and unnecessary.Of course, they have to let the Princess Elizabeth know that she is now Queen.

What The Crown does well are the small intimate scenes, Philip telling the Queen the news (we only see her reaction, we don’t hear what he actually said), Elizabeth getting dressed in her mourning clothes on the plane before she arrives in England, Margaret riding off on her horse and being comforted by Peter Townsend, Queen Elizabeth breaking down when she hears the news of her husband’s death (they slept in separate rooms).

There is very little of Lord Mountbatten in this series which is unfortunate. Churchill makes a comment about Mountbatten giving away India, and there is a scene of Mountbatten toasting the House of Mountbatten with champagne prematurely as it turns out. Both Philip and Elizabeth were very close to Mountbatten, they spent their honeymoon at his country estate Broadlands, but he seems like an afterthought in the series.

For another look at the 1st episode head on over to The Court Jeweller and Tom and Lorenzo

Winner of the Eterna and Omega Giveaway

The winner of Leanna Renee Hieber's ETERNA AND OMEGA is

Brenda Fletcher

Congratulations!

Scandalous Halloween Giveaway: ETERNA AND OMEGA by Leanna Renee Hieber

Hello everyone! I know it has been a long time since I have blogged but I have an exciting giveaway that I couldn't wait to share with you. ETERNA AND OMEGA, the 2nd book in Leanna Renee Hieber's exciting new series from TOR. It seemed only fitting since Halloween is just around the corner.  If you love the novels of the Brontes and Mary Elizabeth Braddon, if Northanger Abbey, Frankenstein, and Dracula are your jam, then you will love Leanna Renee Hieber.

From the back cover:

Leanna Renee Hieber's gaslamp fantasy series continues and the action ramps up in Eterna and Omega.

In New York City, fearing the dangers of the Eterna Compound--supposedly the key to immortality--Clara Templeton buries information vital to its creation. The ghost of her clandestine lover is desperate to tell her she is wrong, but though she is a clairvoyant, she cannot hear him.

In London, Harold Spire plans to send his team of assassins, magicians, mediums, and other rogue talents to New York City, in an attempt to obtain Eterna for Her Royal Majesty, Queen Victoria. He stays behind to help Scotland Yard track down a network of body snatchers and occultists, but he'll miss his second-in-command, Rose Everhart, whose gentle exterior masks a steel spine.

Rose's skepticism about the supernatural has been shattered since she joined Spire's Omega Branch. Meeting Clara is like looking into a strange mirror: both women are orphans, each is concealing a paranormal ability, and each has a powerful and attractive guardian who has secrets of his own.

The hidden occult power that menaces both England and America continues to grow. Far from being dangerous, Eterna may hold the key to humanity's salvation.

And here is the exciting book trailer!

About Leanna:

Leanna Renee Hieber is an actress, playwright, artist and the award-winning, bestselling author of Gothic Victorian Fantasy novels for adults and teens such as the Strangely Beautiful, Eterna Files and Magic Most Foul sagas. She grew up in rural Ohio inventing ghost stories, graduating with a BFA in Theatre and a focus in the Victorian Era from Miami University. She began her theatrical career with the Cincinnati Shakespeare Company and began adapting works of 19th Century literature for the stage. Her novella Dark Nest won the 2009 Prism Award for excellence in the genres of Futuristic, Fantasy and Paranormal Romance. Her debut novel, The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker (Strangely Beautiful series) hit Barnes & Noble's bestseller lists, won two 2010 Prism Awards (Best Fantasy, Best First Book), the 2010 Orange County Book Buyer's Best Award (Young Adult category) and other regional genre awards. The Perilous Prophecy of Guard and Goddess won the 2012 Prism Award (Best Fantasy). Books one and two are now available as STRANGELY BEAUTIFUL in a revised, author-preferred editions from Tor/Forge. DARKER STILL: A Novel of Magic Most Foul, hit the Kid's/YA INDIE NEXT LIST as a recommended title by the American Booksellers Association and a Scholastic Book Clubs "highly recommended" title. Leanna's short fiction has been featured in anthologies such as Willful Impropriety: Tales of Society and Scandal, "Too Fond"; a short story on Tor.com, "Charged" in Queen Victoria's Book of Spells and the Mammoth Book of Gaslight Romance. Her new Gaslamp Fantasy series THE ETERNA FILES, is now available from Tor/Forge. Her books have been translated into many languages and have been selected for multiple book club editions. Leanna is a member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, Mystery Writers of America and International Thriller Writers. She is proud to be a co-founder of the original Lady Jane's Salon Reading Series in New York. Leanna was named the 2010 RWA NYC Chapter Author of the Year. A member of Actors Equity Association and SAG-AFTRA, Leanna has been featured in film and television on shows like Boardwalk Empire. She loves nothing more than a good ghost story and a finely tailored corset, wandering graveyards and adventuring around New York City, where she also works as a ghost tour guide. Active on Twitter @leannarenee and Facebook.com/lrhieber, more information as well as free reads, author resources, links to her art and Etsy store and more can be found at leannareneehieber.com

This giveaway is only open to US residents.  Contest ends on October 30th at 12 noon.

Here are the rules:

1) Leave your name and email address in the comments section
2) If you tweet about the giveaway, and let me know, you get an extra entry.
3) If you are not a follower of the blog, and become one, you get an extra entry.
4) If you like the Scandalous Women Facebook page, you also get an extra entry.

The winner will be announced on October 31st!

September Book of the Month: ETERNA AND OMEGA by Leanna Renee Hieber

Leanna Renee Hieber's gaslamp fantasy series continues and the action ramps up in Eterna and Omega.

In New York City, fearing the dangers of the Eterna Compound--supposedly the key to immortality--Clara Templeton buries information vital to its creation. The ghost of her clandestine lover is desperate to tell her she is wrong, but though she is a clairvoyant, she cannot hear him.

In London, Harold Spire plans to send his team of assassins, magicians, mediums, and other rogue talents to New York City, in an attempt to obtain Eterna for Her Royal Majesty, Queen Victoria. He stays behind to help Scotland Yard track down a network of body snatchers and occultists, but he'll miss his second-in-command, Rose Everhart, whose gentle exterior masks a steel spine.

Rose's skepticism about the supernatural has been shattered since she joined Spire's Omega Branch. Meeting Clara is like looking into a strange mirror: both women are orphans, each is concealing a paranormal ability, and each has a powerful and attractive guardian who has secrets of his own.

The hidden occult power that menaces both England and America continues to grow. Far from being dangerous, Eterna may hold the key to humanity's salvation.

I don't often feature books (fiction or non-fiction) that isn't about a Scandalous Woman from history but I'm making an exception this month because Eterna and Omega (book 2 of The Eterna Files) is such a special book. Full disclosure, the author is a very good friend of mine, and I have the joy of seeing her grow from a newly published author to an award winning multi-published and accomplished novelist.  The Eterna Files series deals with a supernatural arms race between the United States and the United Kingdom. These books have everything, action, adventure, the paranormal and even some smooching. Leanna is an accomplished actress and playwright so her characters are three dimensional, fully formed that just leap off the page. If you love the Victorian era or the Gothic novels of Charlotte Bronte or Edgar Allen Poe, you will love this series. However, I would suggest that you start with the first book The Eterna Files which is now out in paperback. The series does have a cast of thousands but it is to Leanna's credit that it never seems overwhelming or confusing. 

You can also check out her other novels on her website.

July Book of the Month: Lucie Aubrac

The next few months mark the 72^nd anniversary of the liberation of France by Allied troops, which makes it a perfect time to be talking about Lucie Aubrac and other members of the French resistance who fought their Nazi occupiers for years until the Allies arrived. As one of the founders and leaders of Libération-Sud, Aubrac not only helped to distribute the underground newspaper Libération during World War II but also served as a courier, arms carrier, and saboteur. Her time under the Vichy regime was like something from a John Le Carré novel, involving disguises, swapped suitcases, and clues left in crosswords. Aubrac, working under the last name Montet, even managed to fool SS officer Klaus Barbie, infamously known as the “Butcher of Lyon,” to help her husband skirt certain death. British and American propaganda turned her exploits into the stuff of legend, and she was revered in her country for decades, but it all nearly ended in 1983, when she and her husband found themselves accused of secretly aiding their most-hated enemies. Lucie Aubrac helps parse out exactly what the couple’s actions and motivations were during the war while offering a thrilling portrait of a brave, resourceful woman who went to extraordinary lengths for love and country.

Here is a short excerpt from the book:

As a founder and leader of Libération-Sud, an arm of the French Resistance during World War II, Lucie Aubrac ran guns and messages, committed acts of sabotage, and multiple times faked her identity to helped others escape from Nazi POW camps. In the first half of her new book, Lucie Aubrac: The French Resistance Heroine Who Outwitted the Gestapo, Siân Rees details these exploits, including the two different times that Lucie rescued her own husband, Raymond. Below is an excerpt from the book detailing the first rescue operation, when Lucie (operating under the last name Samuel) traveled to Sarrebourg with a plan to get Raymond sick enough to be sent from prison to a hospital—from which she could sneak him away.

Still in Vannes, Lucie Samuel had had no news of her husband for weeks. She passed her first birthday as a married woman as she had done her first Christmas: alone and frightened, not knowing where her husband was, or even if he was still alive. Her parents-in-law knew no more than she did; it seemed nobody had information about their men. Some semblance of ordinary life had to continue, nevertheless, as millions of people waited for news. However bewildered and frightened teachers and pupils were with foreign soldiers in the streets and fathers, brothers, and husbands who had vanished, the girls and boys who had been working toward their baccalauréat had to sit their examination.

Bravely, Lucie contacted the German authorities in Vannes, persuading them to release four French officers from the nearest internment camp to form the examination jury. She was enraged when all four refused to seize the opportunity to escape; had they no courage, no principled determination to resist defeat? Term had ended by the time she finally received a card from the Red Cross at the end of July, with a note that her husband was confined to a barracks in Sarrebourg, converted to a prisoner-of-war camp. He had written the card on her birthday:

Nothing is more monotonous, my love, than life in camp. More than the lack of comforts and the terrible food, it is the false and contradictory reports which weigh on the thousands of poor blokes who are here and who see no hope on the horizon. . . . When I leave here, I will go to Dijon, and I will find you, and we will choose what must be done, won’t we. I hope you are very well, and ready for our future life. And this evening, your birthday, my thoughts will be entirely with you. Raymond.

With most of France lapsing into the stunned inactivity known as attentisme—waiting to see what would happen—Lucie Samuel went into action. She had no more faith than her husband that the Nazis would soon let their French prisoners go home, and she knew that if Raymond were transferred to a prisoner-of-war camp in Germany his Jewishness would put him in terrible danger. He had to escape immediately, and Lucie was not a woman who waited for other people to step in and take care of things. She would rescue him herself.

Once again she crossed France, traveling in even more dangerous circumstances than she had done the previous November, for the roads were blocked not only by refugees but also by the German troops fanning out across a traumatized country, ramming home the fact of their victory as they entered town after town in sleek, gray-green, seemingly endless processions. Single-minded in her determination to rescue Raymond, Lucie had come up with a simple plan: she would engineer her husband’s transfer from barracks to hospital, then smuggle in a disguise to facilitate his escape. In Champagne, she stopped off to find Raymond’s brother, Yvon, in the military hospital to which he had been posted. Yvon provided her with a drug guaranteed to provoke fever, and on she went, against the current, traveling east as everyone else traveled west, until she reached Sarrebourg and begged permission to see her husband. There was a brief, charged contact between prisoner and visitor—it was the first time they had seen each other since Paris in May—the drug was passed from one to another, time was called, and a couple of days later a heavily sweating Raymond was transferred to the hospital. Visiting as the anxious wife, Lucie produced the cap and suit of workman’s blue overalls in which he would escape. If it was a simple plan, it was also a terrifying one for Raymond, who was more frightened than he had ever been in his life—hiding next to the garden fence was easy enough, but he was all too aware that if the nearby guards saw him during the moment it would take to haul himself over, their bullets would not miss. After what seemed like hours of gut-cramping hesitation, he pulled himself up, threw himself over the top, and fell into the street below, where Lucie was waiting.

Excerpted from Lucie Aubrac: The French Resistance Heroine Who Outwitted the Gestapo, by Siân Rees, with permission from Chicago Review Press. Copyright (c) 2016, all rights reserved.

Guest Post: Isabella Bird: A Lady’s Life Breaking Boundaries

The nineteenth century was a fantastic decade for scandalous women, as more and more strong-minded, early feminists were stepping out of their male counterpart’s shadows to make their own names on the world’s stage.

In literature, this decade saw Mary Shelly galvanize readers with her controversial thriller, “Frankenstein,” and the Bronte sisters tear at the heartstrings of many—albeit not under their own names. However, one female writer from the 1800s overstepped so many of her assigned gender roles at the time that publishing under her own name was probably one of the least controversial of her actions.

Isabella Bird was one of the most outspoken and daring adventuresses of her time, and although her first book was published anonymously, her age-old classic “A Ladies Life In the Rocky Mountains” proudly bore her birth name in all its feminine glory.

Early Outcry

Born Isabella Lucy Bird in 1831 to a devout Reverend in a small town in Yorkshire, she was known from an early age as having a smart mouth and quick wit. Reports have surfaced of an eager young Bird, fearlessly questioning an MP during his campaign trail, "Did you tell my father my sister was so pretty because you wanted his vote?”

It was this genuine interest and curiosity in the ways of the world that propelled her forward with eager drive and soon became her defining feature after long-term poor health brought complications to her life that she could have never imagined.

In reality, this illness was a pivotal moment for Bird, as the family doctor recommended fresh air as a cure for her ailments. Leading to the beginning of her traveling life, this instigated several summers spent in Scotland, followed by a trip to America, which was pre-empted by a sizable donation from her father and a weary warning to not come back until it was spent. It seemed her sharp intelligence and opened minded nature was all too much for her humble evangelical home life.

Overcoming Obstacles

Early accounts of Bird’s poor health described her as frail, a chronic insomniac, sufferer of stress headaches and several problems with her spine. Later on, a tumor was removed from around this area but her health problems still continued into later life.

Despite the fact that traveling with these constant discomforts must have taken its toll, the wandering adventuress had been bitten by the travel bug, and from here on, things were only set to become more epic.

Her next solo voyage took her to Australia, before quickly returning stateside to visit the tropical island of Hawaii. Here, she wrote her second book “The Hawaiian Archipelago” and spent her time hiking some of the greatest mountains in the area. It wasn’t until she heard that the air in Colorado, then a newly formed state, was incredibly healing for the sick and infirmed that she packed her bags again and set off on perhaps the most prominent adventures of her life.

The Rocky Mountains Years

One of the most notable images of Bird depicts her in practical, male influenced clothing, straddling a horse, with no shred of consideration for this being improper or unladylike. For most, this is a beautiful metaphor of the strength, character and delightfully controversial nature of this poignant early feminist.

Her time in the Rocky Mountains was documented, and later published, via a series of letters between her and her sister. Her tone in the writing is one of pragmatic wonder, describing her surroundings with enthusiasm and poetic vigor. Her recounts of the problems she faced along the way are tackled with levelheaded sensibilities, and her lovingly open-minded descriptions of the now-famed mountain man, Jim, is a testimony to the true uniqueness of Bird’s character and her wonderfully free perspectives on all that she encountered.

  

Her Scandalous Later Life

After her adventures in the Rockies, Bird was not done. She traveled to Japan, China, Korea, Vietnam and Singapore, never once letting man nor mind slow down her global gallivants. It wasn’t until the heart-breaking death of her beloved sister, Henrietta, that Bird finally succumbed to one of her many suitors and married Dr. John Bishop.

From this point, her health took a dramatic turn for the worse, and she was indefinitely grounded, until the death of her husband and subsequent heritage fund seemed to be enough to inspire her to pack a suitcase and tie up her traveling boots for once last time.

It’s hard to say whether the conditions of her marriage had been holding her health back, but one thing is undeniably clear: she was never a woman who was meant to be held down. Free, once again and back on the road, Bird visited India, Tibet, Persia, Kurdistan and Turkey before her swan song journey to Morocco. During these excursions, she set up a hospital, named after and in memory of her late husband. If nothing else, this shows that the man did hold a special place in Bird’s otherwise wild and independent heart.

On the return from Morocco, her health finally got the better of her, and after seeing most of the world, writing a plethora of classic books and setting up missions and other charitable projects globally, Bird’s inspirational life came to an end in the comfort of her own home in England in 1904.

 Get Her Work

Amazingly, Kindle owners can download all of Bird’s works for no charge from the Amazon-based store. However, for users living in the Middle East or some of the world's more conservative countries, the titles may be blocked as some of their content can be viewed as controversial. Kindle Fire users can get around this by installing installing a VPN such as IPVanish on their device, which is a handy bit of software that allows you to gain access to all content, no matter where in the world you are.

If you're don't own a Kindle, then paperback copies are also available from Amazon, or you can download the PDF for free from this site.

 About the Author: Isa is an entertainment blogger and an avid reader and passionate feminist. She loves the inspiring women of the nineteenth century and the way they paved the way for the modern world!