An interesting read about a first cousin once removed of Winston Churchill. While he overshadows her, she was a fascinating person in her own right. She is a complex person, who hides behind a sunny facade. She came from money, earned medals in the war, but things in her life were not always as sunny as she led people to believe. Very enjoyable book, and an interesting look into the life of a woman that most people don't realize existed.

Quite a fascinating tale. I felt that the writing left a little something to be desired, but it was still very interesting.

Telling Tales: The Fabulous Lives of Anita Leslie

This is my 2nd book about Anita Leslie, the first being Train to Nowhere, which was written by Leslie herself as a memoir mostly of her time driving an ambulance during WWII, and which I liked well enough. She’s a first cousin once removed of Winston Churchill, and her father is a baronet. Part of this book covers the same territory but there is much more about her family and personal life after the war ended. Anita Leslie married Paul Rodzianko as an act of defiance in April 1937, after he arrived at Glaslough from Ukraine despite her parents’ disapproval and wrote his life story, Tattered Banners (1939) then they collaborated on Modern Horsemanship. He imbued her with a dislike for Jews during their unhappy marriage, but she was less prejudiced once she was finally away from his pushy influence. This book started off a bit slow but got better once she joined the women’s ambulance crew and was trained as both a driver and as a full mechanic, and was sent to four different war zones during WWII in that capacity. Her husband Paul meanwhile took all kinds of jobs training horses or whatever he had to, in order to be able to follow her while she was trying to leave him behind. She finally told him they weren’t getting back together when the war was over. She later married Bill King.

There seems to be a focus on her romantic interests in the book, of which there are many, despite her being married for much of it, or trying to get divorced/annulled. There is much attention given to her beaux, as she puts it. Another interest is her writing career, and trying to buy her family’s land back parcel by parcel for her son. She was able to travel quite a bit, off to spend time with friends or back to the family estate at Glaslough after she was bought her own estate by her mother in Western Ireland in County Galway called Oranmore Castle. A good book for those who like biographies from the UK, the family of Churchill, with a bit of WWII thrown in.  My thanks for the advance electronic copy that was provided by NetGalley, author Penny Perrick, and the publisher for my fair review.

Bloomsbury Caravel   288 pages
Pub: Jan 8th,  2019

Full review on my BookZone blog:
https://wordpress.com/post/bookblog200.wordpress.com/1071

Anita Leslie (1814-1885) is little read today but in her time was an acclaimed biographer, a socialite and also a surprisingly courageous woman who was awarded the Croix de Guerre for her wartime service. She was born into the Anglo-Irish Leslie family, owners of Castle Leslie since 1665 and the venue for the Paul McCartney and Heather Mills wedding of 2002. She had a fairly chequered career, but her many books, often about members of her extended family, such as her great-aunt Jennie Churchill, mother of Winston, were well-received. In many ways she was a typical daughter of the Anglo-Irish landowning classes, but by no means a conventional one, as this well-written, well-researched and entertaining biography makes clear. I was glad to become acquainted with such an interesting woman.

Anita Leslie was an unusual and interesting character. I think it is important to learn about the contributions of women to WWII, such as Anita Leslie's service. The first half of the book was more interesting than the second half.

The poignant biography of Anita Leslie, the only woman to have won the Croix de Guerre and the Africa Star in WWII.
Anita Leslie (1914-85), best known for the popular biographies of her extraordinary relatives, including Jennie Churchill (Winston's mother) and sculptor Clare Sheridan, was also a most unlikely war heroine. In 1940 Anita volunteered for active service, and by the end of the war she had been awarded the Croix de Guerre for outstanding bravery on the battlefield in France.
While Anita always insisted that everything was "delightful and amusing," her life after the war was clouded by destructive love affairs, depression, and domestic and financial chaos.
This revealing biography describes the complex character behind the sunny facade she was at pains to project. Drawing on copious correspondence, Penny Perrick brings to life Anita's true anguished self: the intense joy she took in her children, her passionate love of Ireland, her career as a writer and the dramatic family squabbling that resulted from the muddled management of the Castle Leslie. Telling Tales is a scintillating and poignant account of this flamboyant woman.
Penny Perrick, who lived for many years in the west of Ireland, was a fashion editor for Vogue, a columnist on the Sun and The Times and a fiction editor for the Sunday Times. She is also a novelist and the author of Something to Hide, a biography of the poet Sheila Wingfield. Penny lives in London.
<b>Review</b>
Penny Perrick has written biography of Anita Leslie named Telling Tales. Penny Perrick beautifully illustrates the life of a flawed woman. Actually, the many lives of this flawed woman. This was an interesting and sometimes not so interesting read. I am back to reading after a while so I was expecting every book to be cool and interesting. This book at some points bored me.
<em>But then maybe that's what biographies do.</em>
Overall, it was knowledgeable and interesting.
<b>Do I Recommend It?</b?
It depends. If you are looking for a book that is interesting and keeps your interest till the end, then this might not be for you. But if you love biographies and memoirs, then it's for you!!

I really tried to get into this book but at chapter three I had to give in.

I was never drawn in and found constant changes too peoples input or perspective confusing. Maybe I am just too organised to read such a book drawn from many letters or sources?

Thank you anyway #NetGallery and Liliput Press

The subject of this book was a fascinating woman. The first half of the book really did justice to telling her mostly forgotten story. The last half got a little dry, but by that point I was so invested it wasn’t hard to slog through.

I loved learning about the cousin of Winston Churchill. I had never heard of her before this book and enjoyed reading about her life. I think this would be great for fans of biographies.

I would like to thank Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a review copy in exchange for my honest and unbiased opinion of it.

I love reading biographies and historical accounts especially on people I know little or nothing about. Telling Tales is about the life of Anita Leslie, a cousin of Winston Churchill. She was raised in an unorthodox home. Like other members of her family, she writes about family members who include sculpture Rodin and Churchill's mother, Jennie.

The first half of the book was fascinating and kept my attention as I learned about Anita, her formative years and the build up to WWII. My attention was lost as the writing felt more like a collegian research paper versus and enjoyable read while learning about someone. I rarely look forward to the end of a book. Unfortunately, this is an exception. I think tighter edits before the release would help.

Thank you NetGalley for access to an advance copy of Telling Tales in exchange for an honest review/feedback.