The Real Mrs Miniver

Rating:
Summary: Delightful even if you never read Mrs. Miniver
Review: The Real Mrs. Miniver is a biography of Jan Struther, the author of the 1940's classic, Mrs. Miniver, as told by her granddaughter. Even though she never met her grandmother, as a member of the family, Ysenda Maxtone Graham, had access to journals, letters, and family stories that really bring life to this biography.

The book Mrs. Miniver began life as a series of essays that appeared in the London Times in 1938 and 1939 on the everyday life of a happily married upper-middle class woman living in London. As the war in Europe approached, these essays took on a deeper meaning describing what England was fighting to preserve and the hardships the British people were willing to endure. They were collected into the book and became a best seller in the United States. Jan Struther spent the war in the US promoting the British cause through lecture tours and radio appearances.

This biography shows the difference between the ideal married woman, Mrs. Miniver, and the real troubled life of Jan Struther. With loving detail, we see how she deals with a marriage that has lost its spark and a clandestine affair. In a sense this biography is a Mrs. Miniver for the 21st Century. Where the fictional Mrs. Miniver has a sexless, but loving marriage, in this book the real Jan Struther struggles with her sexual relationship with another man while she is being promoted as the ideal of British womanhood. How she resolves this complex war-time situation makes compelling reading.

This is a book that portrays the war years in a very human way through the life of a woman who was held up as an ideal at the time, but whose real life is a model for our generation of human frailty and the strength needed to over come it. Included are sample sections from the book Mrs. Miniver and many of Jan Struther's poems which are delightful.

Rating:
Summary: eye for detail worthy of Struther herself
Review: 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!

Rating:
Summary: eye for detail worthy of Struther herself
Review: 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!