by Mary Davies Parnell (1997)
Plateaux, Gateaux, Chateaux is the final volume in Mary Davies Parnell's popular trilogy of childhood memoirs. Having overcome the hurdle of O levels, Mary is now in the sixth form, a period when her horizons are widened in many directions. A new interest in dramatics and a dramatic, clandestine night out while at Ranger camp help relieve the burden of A levels, and are among a number of episodes in which her education is extended beyond the academic. And after success at A level Mary once again becomes a small fish in a big pool as she reads French at Aberystwyth. Student life in the fifties seems innocent now, and this distant time is charmingly explored, from Principal Goronwy Rees's white socks to the kidnapping of Miss Fresher. Mary's account ends with her impending return after her year abroad at a school for girls in Tours. Outside school she has visited chateaux, heard Piaf sing, received marriage proposals from two GIs and become a convinced Francophile.
himself
The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, written in 1789, details its writer's life in slavery, his time spent serving on galleys, the eventual attainment of his own freedom and later success in business. Including a look at how slavery stood in West Africa, the book received favorable reviews and was one of the first slave narratives to be read widely.
David Leavitt
**From Goodreads:** David Leavitt brings the wonders and mysteries of Florence alive, illuminating why it is, and always has been, one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world. The third in the critically-acclaimed Writer and the City Series-in which some of the world's finest novelists reveal the secrets of the cities they know best-Florence is a lively account of expatriate life in the 'city of the lily'. Why has Florence always drawn so many English and American visitors? (At the turn of the century, the Anglo-American population numbered more than thirty thousand.) Why have men and women fleeing sex scandals traditionally settled here? What is it about Florence that has made it so fascinating-and so repellent-to artists and writers over the years? Moving fleetly between present and past and exploring characters both real and fictional, Leavitt's narrative limns the history of the foreign colony from its origins in the middle of the nineteenth century until its demise under Mussolini, and considers the appeal of Florence to figures as diverse as Tchaikovsky, E.M. Forster, Ronald Firbank, and Mary McCarthy. Lesser-known episodes in Florentine history-the moving of Michelangelo's David, and the construction of temporary bridges by black American soldiers in the wake of the Second World War-are contrasted with images of Florence today (its vast pizza parlors and tourist culture). Leavitt also examines the city's portrayal in such novels and films as *A Room with a View, The Portrait of a Lady* and *Tea with Mussolini*.
Richard Peck
In 1911 in England, eighteen-year-old Mary Cooke is hired as personal maid to the willful and arrogant Amanda Whitwell and is astonished to find that her new employer is her near-double, a coincidence that has lasting consequences for Mary, especially when she accompanies Amanda on the Titanic's fateful voyage.
Juliet Nicolson
A social history of the first two years in Britain following World War I covers topics ranging from the development of skin grafting procedures by surgeon Harold Gillies and the passage of the women's vote to the state funeral of the Unknown Soldier.