Joan

Cairo 1944: Major Patrick 'Paddy' Leigh Fermor, lionized for his daring kidnap of a Nazi general in Crete, meets the witty, beautiful and unhappily married Joan Rayner at a party. It was the beginning of a love affair that would endure until her death in 2003.But who was Joan? Volumes have been written by and about Paddy, but she is almost entirely absent from their pages. Now Simon Fenwick, the first archivist to see the Leigh Fermor papers, reveals the quiet rebel hitherto only fleetingly glimpsed. This enthralling biography, written with full access to Joan's personal archive, at last puts Joan at the centre of her own story. It is also a colourful portrait of a marriage and a milieu, revealing the sexual and intellectual mores of that wartime generation who lived life at full tilt, no matter what the consequences.'Portrays Joan in her many guises: debutante, muse, talented photographer, Paddy's lover and then wife. Her life reads like a who's who of twentieth-century culture . . . A riveting biography of an amazing woman' The Lady'Does Joan merit a biography of her own? If someone had asked her, she would almost certainly have said no. But Simon Fenwick pulls it off . . . A quiet rebel and a fertile muse, Joan was a remarkable woman, and this is an entertaining book' Literary Review 'In this engrossing biography, the woman hitherto overshadowed by her husband is brought from black and white to full colour . . . a vivid portrait of her and the places and people she loved' Observer