This sensational 1941 memoir of life on wartime Europe's frontline by a trailblazing female reporter is an 'unforgettable' (The Times) rediscovered classic, introduced by Christina Lamb (who calls her 'the Forrest Gump of journalism').

Paris as it fell to the Nazis
London on the first day of the Blitz
Berlin the day Germany invaded Poland
Madrid in the Spanish Civil War
Prague during the Munich crisis
Lapland as the Russians attacked
Moscow betrayed by the Germans
Virginia Cowles has seen it all.

As a pioneering female correspondent, she reported from the frontline of 1930s Europe into the Second World War, always in the right place at the right time. Flinging off her heels under shellfire; meeting Hitler ('an inconspicuous little man'); gossiping with Churchill by his goldfish pond; dancing in the bomb-blasted Ritz ... Introduced by Christina Lamb, Cowles' incredible dispatches make you an eyewitness to the twentieth century as you have never experienced it before.

'An amazingly brilliant reporter ... One of the most engrossing [books] the war has produced.' New York Times Book Review

What readers are saying:
The queen of historical name-dropping

Holy cow! What a wonderful find!!

Most unexpectedly great book that I have read in years. Reads like a novel [but] this is real life.

The best book I've read this year ... Exquisitely written [day-to-day] drama of history ... Breathtakingly fresh.

I can't recommend this book enough. Cowles' voice and humanity are her greatest assets, but her willingness to be where the action was - and always find trouble - paid off.

A marvel. Her ability to capture anecdotes and dialogue that offer surprising insights into historic personages and events is a frequent source of wonder. It was difficult for me not to drive my family crazy wanting to read them quotes.

The intrepid Virginia Cowles was in the right places at the right times and connected to the right people. What a life she led!

This sensational 1941 memoir of life on the frontline of wartime Europe by a 'magnificent' (Antony Beevor) trailblazing female reporter is a rediscovered classic, introduced by Christina Lamb.

About the Author

Virginia Cowles OBE was born in Vermont in 1910. She gravitated to journalism in her youth, writing features for Hearst Newspapers, and reported from Civil War Spain in 1937. She then covered wartime Europe as a roving correspondent for the Sunday Times among other publications, as well as the BBC and NBC. Celebrated by Antony Beevor as 'one of the truly great war correspondents of all time', Cowles recalled her experiences in her memoir Looking for Trouble (1941), which Faber are republishing with a new foreword by Christina Lamb. She later reported from North Africa as special assistant to the American ambassador in London. In 1945, Cowles married Aidan Crawley, a British journalist and former fighter pilot who had spent years in a German POW camp and later became a politician and film-maker; they had three children. As well as writing a play with Martha Gellhorn, Cowles was a historian and biographer whose subjects included Winston Churchill and the Romanov, Rothschild and Astor families. She was killed in an automobile accident in France in 1983.

Christina Lamb OBE is a bestselling author and Chief Foreign Correspondent at the Sunday Times. Ever since reporting from Afghanistan in 1987 aged 22, she has won prestigious awards for her unflinching coverage, including the Prix Bayeux as well as being named Foreign Correspondent of the Year five times. Lamb has also written nine books including the bestselling The Africa House, I Am Malala, and, most recently, Our Bodies, Their Battlefield: What War Does to Women. She lives in London with her family.

Book Information
ISBN 9780571367542
Author Virginia Cowles
Format Hardback
Page Count 560
Imprint Faber & Faber
Publisher Faber & Faber
Weight(grams) 661g
Dimensions(mm) 216mm * 135mm * 40mm