THANK YOU

The help and contributions from Lady Fortescue's relatives, Transworld Publishing, Society of Authors, and visitors to the site is much appreciated.

BOOK PAGE

Synopsis of all her books.

BOOK SALE

Find copies of your missing editions. Second hand copies of books are available from the site.

EDITIONS

Scan or photograph a dust wrapper and e-mail it to the site to have it included on the book page. There are still some missing editions.

VISITORS BOOK

GALLERY

Photo's of people & places of interest connected with Winifred.

CONTENTS

View the whole site contents, over 100 pages, listed at a glance and go directly to a particular page by clicking on the hyperlinks.

SEARCH

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RECIPE

Traditional Provencal Recipe.

LINKS

Links to related sites of interest.

• The Provence that Winifred & John Fortescue moved to in the 1930's has changed almost beyond recognition. Her view down the mountain from 'Sunset House' now reveals a golf course resort, out of town shopping centre and many developments and roads although Opio village is largely unchanged. Grasse & Cannes have grown considerably and Nice, of course, is a very busy cosmopolitan city and resort. That said, many of the buildings in the books remain including the 'Domaine' and 'Sunset House', both in private ownership. Please browse through the pages, there are currently over 100. More photographs of locations that feature in her books will be added from time to time.

• Comments, contributions, photographs, information & suggestions are welcomed. Please do use the visitors book or send an email via the email link. The site is not commercial but second hand copies of books are sometimes available. Any income from the sale of spare books is donated to charity.

• Winifred Fortescue was born in a Suffolk rectory on 7th February 1888, the third child of a country rector and connected, on her mother's side, to the Fighting Battyes of India. When she was seventeen - in order to ease the strain on family finances - she decided to try to earn her own living and went on the stage, performing in Sir Herbert Tree's company, and later starring in Jerome K. Jerome's The Passing of the Third Floor Back. In 1914 she married John Fortescue, the King's Librarian and Archivist and famous historian of the British Army. The marriage, in spite of a huge disparity of age between them, (some 28yrs),was a uniquely happy one, and although Winifred Fortescue gave up her career on the stage, she later began a successful interior decorating and dress designing business until illness forced her to close her business down. It was at that point that she began writing, for Punch, the Daily Chronicle, the Evening News, finally inaugurating and editing a Woman's Page for the Morning Post. (Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree founded RADA in 1904 and was Grandfather of actor Oliver Reed).

• In the early 1930's John and Winifred Fortescue, now Sir John and Lady Fortescue, moved to Provence and there she wrote her famous and best selling book Perfume from Provence, and the sequel Sunset House.  Her autobiography, There's Rosemary, There's Rue, was first published in 1939. Trampled Lilies continues her story including her escape from France and the Nazi's during WW II. Her three further books  are Mountain Madness, Beauty for Ashes and Laughter in Provence. These cover the period back in England until WWII ended, memories of holidays in the Alps and the the return to her home in France to resume life in the sunshine after the war.

• Winifred Fortescue died in Opio, Provence, in April 1951. A fuller biography can be found on the Lady Fortescue page.

 I hope you enjoy browsing the pages, there are now over 100!
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