The Real Mrs Miniver: The Life of Jan Struther (Paperback)

~ (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"This is a perfect biography, an utterly marvellous book," -- Valerie Grove " 'The Real Mrs Miniver' is a crsytalline work of art ... a compelling story, tragic but at the same time mysteriously joyful." -- A.N.Wilson --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Description

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.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Tempus Publishing Ltd (May 1, 2007)
• ISBN-10: 0752443062
• ISBN-13: 978-0752443065
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 4.9 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,786,984 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars eye for detail worthy of Struther herself, January 20, 2003

By	Karen Sampson Hudson "Karen Sampson Hudson" (Reno, NV United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Real Mrs Miniver (Hardcover)

This excellent biography of Joyce Maxtone-Graham, better known to readers as "Mrs. Miniver" of World War II-era fame, is written by a granddaughter, Ysenda. Although she never knew her famous grandmother, Ysenda has captured the essence of this talented, complex woman whose writing captured the hearts of millions world wide.

"Mrs. Miniver" was, of course, an invention, an upper middle class English woman whose wisdom, fortitude, and compassion in the face of adversity personified what the British liked to think of as "our way of life." The extremely successful movie, produced by William Wyler and starring Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon, is still rented, and shown on the classic movie stations.

Joyce Maxtone-Graham was very different from Mrs. Miniver: Part life-long tomboy, part buoyantly happy wife (in the early years of her marriage anyway), part sharp-eyed observer and part lazy and sensual mistress, Joyce is a complex character brought richly to life in this book. The genius of her writing lies in attention and enjoyment of small things: Her description of a happy union is "an eye to catch across the table."

Ysenda Maxtone-Graham is to be commended for her own attention to the small matters that make up a rich life, with its full texture of joys and sorrows. This excellent book will provide you with a full understand of "the real Mrs. Miniver." Five well-deserved stars!

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Shut Your Eyes And Think Of England, August 25, 2005

By	Kevin Killian (San Francisco, CA United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Real Mrs Miniver (Hardcover)

This book rips the lid off the conventional pieties about what it emans to be an Englishwoman, and shows how Hollywood and the media can take a person's life and thoroughly rearrange it to a disorienting degree; it's an easy task, especially if the person in questions cooperates up to the hilt. In these days of reality TV, I often think back to this pioneering biography of Joyce Maxtone Graham, written by her grandddaughter with an eye nicely balanced between the too fond and the too cold. Today we see real people going on TV seemingly eager to give up all their identity just so long as they stay in the camera's eye. What Joyce did was something rarer, particularly for the 1930s and 1940s.

She started out life with a little girl's talent for drawing and writing little stories and poems. Marriage occupied her for awhile, and motherhood, but eventually nothing could hold her back, once she began writing the "Diary" of Mrs. Miniver, an imaginary Englishwoman whose life had roots in her own, but which was considerably idealized and romanticized. It started out small and then got big--too big to handle. Ysenda Maxtone-Graham, the biographer, gets considerable mileage out of the juxtaposition of Joyce's enormous personal ambition with the developing chaos in Europe which would lead to England's valiant defense against Hitler in the 1930s, and how the two combined to give England a new (and fictional) heroine, Mrs. Miniver, the character everyone thought was real!

Hollywood called, Joyce went, she sold an outlandish number of war bonds, but actually she was deserting her native land in time of need, driven mostly by an unseemly passion for a fellow anti-Fascist refugee. Love knows many avenues, of course, but reading the book you just can't help but think that her paramous was probably the worst thing ever to happen to her! However she would look on it differently, and that, perhaps, is the difference between living one's own life, no matter even if it's a muddle, and reading about it in the safety of your own library.

Ysenda Maxtone Graham tells this sad story with an easy flair and a sympathy for all concerned, especially those bamboozled by Joyce's prison of lies. I hope she continues to unearth more about her illustrious ancestor or, if the well is dry, to move on to another lonely soul.

5.0 out of 5 stars THIS is biography!, April 16, 2009

By	Anne Salazar "inveterate reader" (Huntington Beach, CA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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This review is from: The Real Mrs Miniver (Hardcover)

I read a lot of memoirs, autobiograpies, and biographies. I'm not even sure why I bought this one.... I was never crazy about the Mrs. Miniver movie..... Maybe I am a sucker for GREAT book covers, and the profile of Jan Struther on this book is delightful!

The book is written by Jan Struther's granddaughter, and it is a JOY! I really, honestly am not sure why I bought it, other than I had just read Mrs. Miniver and I saw this at Amazon and thought this would shed more light on an interesting subject, that being England in the days before WWII. I thought I would probably just skim this book....... But I started it and loved it from the beginning. It is hard to believe this was written by a granddaughter, as I have found biographies by family members are almost always obviously opinionated, but this book is not opinionated at all. It is a delightful biography of a woman who seemed delightful herself, up until the last few years of her life, and even then for the most part she kept on smiling and trying her best to live the life she had.

I loved Jan Struther's poems, and the hymns are amazing! Who would have thought I would EVER be reading a biography of someone who wrote hymns, let alone hymns written by a humorist (for the most part) who claimed to have basicaly no religion. When I read her poem "Betsinda Dances" I had chills, and re-read it over and over because it is the epitome of the over-used word CHARMING. I also love little about-to-be-two-years-old girls and this gives a never-to-be-forgotten word picture of one dancing around her playroom.

Thank you to Ysenda Maxtone Graham for this charming, interesting book! Thanks also to the family for putting on the internet the rest of the poetry and prose of Jan Struther.