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Tomorrow to Be Brave: A Memoir of the Only Woman Ever to Serve in the French Foreign Legion Paperback – June 26, 2007
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The only woman ever to serve officially in the French Foreign Legion, there was the indomitable Englishwoman, speeding across the minefields of 'no man's land' directly towards Rommel's deadly Panzer tanks, her foot hard on the accelerator, doing her job: driving the general's car. That it was leading two thousand men in one of the great military exploits of the Second World War, the legendary mass break-out from Bir Hakeim, that it would see her hailed as the heroine of the night and eventually earn her both the Military Medal and the Légion d'Honneur, was not on her mind as the night exploded around her and German artillery lit up the desert sky. Her only thought was this: she was trying to save the life of the man she loved.
Tomorrow to be Brave is the story of Susan Travers's extraordinary life, from her privileged childhood in England through her rebellious youth partying her way across interwar Europe, to her rash decision to join the Free French forces at the outbreak of World War II. In search of adventure -- and a break from her stifling upper-class world -- she could never have dreamed the pivotal role she would play. From her part in the North African campaign through her time after the war serving in the French Foreign Legion as a regular officer -- the only woman ever to have achieved this -- there was enough adventure and passion, heartbreak and heroism, to fill a hundred lifetimes. This, in her own words, is her story. It is a tale of exceptional courage against overwhelming odds and of an epic love affair played out against the backdrop of war as she risked everything for the country -- and the man -- she loved.
- Print length304 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherGallery Books
- Publication dateJune 26, 2007
- Dimensions6 x 0.8 x 9 inches
- ISBN-100743200020
- ISBN-13978-0743200028
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- Publisher : Gallery Books (June 26, 2007)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 304 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0743200020
- ISBN-13 : 978-0743200028
- Item Weight : 13.7 ounces
- Dimensions : 6 x 0.8 x 9 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #1,171,091 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #574 in Historical France Biographies
- #2,347 in WWII Biographies
- #2,526 in Medical Professional Biographies
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About the authors
Wendy Holden (aka Taylor Holden) is a novelist, non-fiction author, historical biographer and ghostwriter as well as a former journalist for the London Daily Telegraph. Her books have sold two million copies, have been adapted for television and radio, and some have been adopted into the schools curriculum. Two of her titles are about to be made into major Hollywood films.
Since leaving newspapers in 1996, Wendy has written more than forty books, including sixteen international bestsellers and the acclaimed novel The Sense of Paper, published by Random House, New York, now available as an ebook. Her bestselling title is Born Survivors, the true story of three young mothers who hid their pregnancies from the Nazis and gave birth in the camps. This has now been published in 22 countries and translated into 16 languages and was released in a special VE Day 75 edition in 2020. She also wrote the memoir Tomorrow Will Be A Good Day and his Life Lessons with Captain Sir Tom Moore, both of which became top ten bestsellers and remained in the charts for over eight months.
A reporter for eighteen years, Wendy covered news events at home and abroad, including conflicts in the Middle East, Communist Europe, and Northern Ireland. Her non-fiction titles have chiefly been the autobiographies of remarkable women, many with wartime experiences such as Zuzana Ruzickova, who survived three concentration camps and slave labour to become one of the world's leading musicians (now an award winning documentary), and Edna Adan Ismail, an inspirational midwife, First Lady, civil war survivor, and builder of hospitals. Wendy also wrote Tomorrow to be Brave, about the only woman in the French Foreign Legion during World War II (soon to be a film). Her book Behind Enemy Lines was about a young Jewish woman who repeatedly crossed German lines as a spy (now an award winning animation); and Til the Sun Grows Cold tells of a British mother whose daughter was killed in troubled Sudan. She also wrote Lady Blue Eyes, the memoir of Frank Sinatra's widow Barbara, A Lotus Grows in the Mud, the best-selling autobiography of Hollywood actress Goldie Hawn, and Memories Are Made of This, a biography of Dean Martin as seen through the eyes of his daughter Deana.
She penned Ten Mindful Minutes with Goldie Hawn, an international bestseller on mindfulness for parents, and she wrote an ebook for children and adults entitled Mr. Scraps about a dog caught up in the London Blitz. In 2012 she conceived and wrote the bestselling memoir of Uggie, the dog from the Oscar winning movie The Artist, published in 12 countries, and she also wrote Haatchi & Little B, the remarkable story of the relationship between a disabled boy and his three legged-dog, which was a number 1 bestseller in the UK, Portugal, and the US as it melted hearts around the world.
Other works have included the bestselling novelisations of the films The Full Monty and Waking Ned, as well as an Antarctic travel guide with comedian Billy Connolly. She wrote Smile Though Your Heart Is Breaking with Pauline Prescott, and Heaven and Hell with Don Felder, co-founder of The Eagles. Her book Shell Shock, a searing investigation into the trauma of conflict from the World War One to the Gulf War, was published in conjunction with a four-part television documentary.
Several of her books have been serialised in national newspapers and magazines around the globe, selected for audio extracts on BBC Radio's Book of the Week and elsewhere, adopted for the curriculum in schools and colleges and transferred to both commercial television and radio drama. Four of her books have been optioned for film. She also writes screenplays, is an international public speaker, literary festival chair, and teaches creative writing online and at exclusive venues in Italy, Dubai, and around the UK.
Wendy divides her time between the UK, US and Italy but lives mostly in Suffolk, England, with her husband and dogs where she likes to relax in her award-winning garden. She also writes occasional articles for newspapers and magazines, including The Guardian, Daily Mail and The Lady. Follow her on Twitter @wendholden, on Instagram @wendyholdenbestsellingauthor, via her website www.wendyholden.com, or her Facebook fan page (https://www.facebook.com/wendyholdenfanpage/?ref=bookmarks). She is an occasional podcaster (http://wendyholden.buzzsprout.com). She has her own Youtube channel - https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCl-hBBGrQhBDQaV2yFqqyug, is her own literary agent, mentor to aspiring writers, and owns a company that develops and publishes e-books and book-related apps.
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The daughter of well-to-do English parents who lived in France for most of her adolesence, Travers spent most of the thirties on the continent, playing tennis, gambling, and cavorting with a series of lovers who were all uninterested in settling down with her. When World War II began, she decided to turn her independant streak (which had led to her learning to drive a car) into an asset, and join the armed forces, fighting for the Allies somehow. She wound up in the French army, trained as a nurse, drove an ambulance briefly in Finland, and then wound up in Africa.
There she served briefly in the campaign in Ethiopia, then was moved to Syria. Here, the doctor that she usually drove for was greviously wounded, and his replacement couldn't stand the thought of a female driver. He complained to his superior, and the next thing Travers knew she was driving for Pierre Koenig, who at the time was a colonel in the Free French army fighting in Syria. Soon the campaign was over, and Travers could set up house with the married Koenig for several months, because the colonel's wife was conveniently absent.
Their affair, however, had to remain secret for the most part. She stayed his driver when the unit he commanded was transferred to the Western Desert in Libya. Soon, the British ordered all women out of the Front lines, but she contrived to make her way back, and was at the post the Free French brigade held for most of the battle. This was Bir Hakeim, a crossroads in the desert that had been fortified with trenches and bunkers dug in the desert floor. Bir Hakeim was the southernmost part of the Allied position at the Battle of Gazala, and it was an important one. After initially attempting to take it quickly by storm, the Germans bypassed it and left its capture to the Italians, who repeatedly failed. The Germans then returned and also failed, and when the post was finally worn down to the point defense was no longer an option, the garrison surprised everyone by breaking out and escaping in their vehicles.
The Bir Hakeim battle makes up the middle quarter or so of the book, and it's a marvelous story. Travers was Koenig's driver for the whole battle, which means that when the breakout occurred, she drove the general's car. The car was hit by numerous bullets, but she and her passengers survived without being harmed.
After the battle, she and the general had to separate (the German propaganda machine made a thing of their affair) and she spent most of the rest of the war driving an ambulance or doctors. When the war ended she managed to enlist in the Foreign Legion, and served several years in overseas posts. Eventually she married a legionnaire, had children, and left the legion herself. When her husband finally passed away, she decided it was time to tell her story. I'm very glad she did.
Her story takes her from socialite to the front lines and then to the legion where she met the man she loved and won 3 of Frances highest medals in 4 hours. Her story will give you such great insight into the French mindset during the 2nd World War and into how something as complicated as the Foreign Legion fighting itselfs could happen.
Her story was well written, a pleasure to read and deserves to be remembered!
Legio, Patria, Nostra
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Totally enjoyable memoirs.
I didn't know about Susan Travers before reading this book, even though I have read many books about the French Foreign Legions.
What a broad!
She led a wicked life, as she herself said and managed to gather quite a fruit salad along the way as well as a nice little family.
From a loveless childhood in England to an adolescence in France and a privileged life all over Europe as a semi-professional tennis players to volunteering to serve for France in WW II, then motherhood, retirement and at he sunset of her life, writing her memoirs so that her grandchildren "can read what a wicked lady her grandma was".
Sure some would claim that she was the "mistress" but if not one legionary questions your status about being a legionary (and she is to date, the only woman legionary in the French foreign legion), it is because they know that first and foremost, she was one them, sharing the hardships, the dangers, not firing a shot in anger and yet driving fearlessly towards the enemy to get the wounded to the hospitals or leading the break-out from Bir-Hakeim with legion legend Colonel Prince Amilakvari at her side and her general (Pierre Koenig, hero of Bir-Hakeim) behind her!
This woman led a free life, ahead of her time in many ways and deserves only our respect!
Read her story, enjoy it and cherish it!
Were war to break out today I wonder wether the spirit, bravery and downright cheekiness of this amazing woman could ever be matched by either a male or female.
This book is written in such a way that you are transported so vividly into battle that you can almost hear, see, feel and experience what is happening on every page. It is brutally forthcoming in every aspect and takes you on a roller coaster of laughter and absolute despair.
As is the way of all true heroes, their legacy is often only recognised long after it is due and usually at the skill of an incredible writer.
Thank you Wendy Holden for allowing me the honor of a simple glimpse into what can only be described as a remarkable life of a lady I truly regret not ever being able to meet.