Reading Madeleine

Franco-British writer Roger Greaves tells the strange story of a mixed-gender literary partnership in 20th century London, when a penniless French immigrant girl from Soho teamed up with a young Fleet Street columnist in Mayfair to celebrate the role of women at a turning point in postwar Europe. Their 40+ books about themselves and the world of 'Madeleine', their feminine figurehead, remained constantly in print from 1940 until the tide turned on them and their prestigious publisher J.M Dent & Sons in the 1970s. Reading Madeleine reveals how the vintage appeal of Mrs Robert Henrey has also much to say about the world of today and its troubled relationship with truth.

Roger Greaves is a translator, editor and author. His bibliography runs to over fifty titles in English and French in the fields of cinema history,philosophy, biography, economic history, art history and literature. He lectured at the University of London Institute in Paris (ULIP) for many years and now manages a small publishing and printing firm in Provence.