The Real Mrs Miniver: The Life of Jan Struther

by YsendaMaxtone-Graham (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  2007

  $10.04

  The film Mrs Miniver , starring Greer Garson, was a wartime classic. It took America by storm and won five Oscars. In Britain, Winston Churchill said that Mrs Miniver did more for the Allied cause than a flotilla of battleships. The book that inspired the film had likewise been a bestseller on both sides of the Atlantic and its author, Jan Struther, found it hard to persuade people that she herself was not its heroine. There were indeed many similarities between the lovable subject of Struther's book and the woman herself - both were married with three children, both lived a fashionable, well-off life in a wealthy part of London, and both were unexpectedly affected by the Second World War. Yet while Mrs Miniver was happily married, Jan Struther had drifted out of love with her conventional husband and fallen for an erudite Jewish refugee in flight from Nazi Austria to the United States. The post-war years were to bring a mixture of joy and tragedy. The way in which Jan Struther's life unfolded - from society wife to passionate woman in love with a refugee to wordl-famous author - is a microcosm of what the war could do to people. An immensely touching story, this biography of the well-loved author is as moving as the film, as witty as the book and as tragic as woman's life at war can be.

• Used

  Hardcover
  2001

  $4.24

  The film Mrs Miniver, starring Greer Garson, was a wartime classic. It took America by storm and won five Oscars. It was a war film, though with a difference in that it was not the handsome RAF pilot but his bride who was killed. Even now it is a classic weepie; in 1942, even isolationist Americans were stunned. Winston Churchill said Mrs Miniver would do more for the Allied cause that a flotilla of battleships. The book Mrs Miniver had likewise been a bestseller on both sides of the Atlantic and its author, Jan Struther found it hard to persuade people that she herself was not its heroine. I felt like a ventriloquist, she later said, whose dummy had struck up an independent conversation with the audience. In the book the Minivers were happily married, but in real life Jan had drifted out of love with her conventional husband Tony and had fallen for an erudite Jewish refugee in the flight to the United States. For the whole war this had to be concealed, while Tony was a prisoner-of-war and guilt drove Jan around America as an unofficial ambassador. Only in 1948 could she marry her refugee, and five years later she died prematurely.The way in which Jan Struther's life unfolded is a microcosm of what the war could do to people.