To War with Whitaker

Description

Hermione, Countess of Ranfurly, kept a diary all her life. To War with Whitaker is an account of the most adventurous, most defiant and most valiant of those years. Hermione and Dan Ranfurly married only months before the Second World War erupted. So when Dan was posted to the Middle East, taking their faithful butler Whitaker with him, Hermione resolved to join them there. This memoir offers astounding displays of commitment and independence. After vowing not to go home without her husband, Hermione travelled alone from Cape Town to Cairo, and remained in the Middle East and North Africa for the two and a half years he was imprisoned by the Germans - meeting many notable characters along the way. With wit and exuberance, Hermione's diary entries take us To War with Whitaker and back again, providing sharp insight into the strong and outspoken woman she was.

Born in 1913 Hermione Llewellyn lived in the comfort of her family estate until the age of 13 when her parents lost their fortune and separated. As an independent 24 year old, Hermione moved to Australia to become the personal assistant to the Governor of New South Wales. It was there that she met her husband to be, Daniel Knox, 6th Earl of Ranfurly. On the outbreak of The Second World War, Daniel Ranfurly was posted to the Middle East and Lady Ranfurly broke all protocol by insisting on joining him there. During her six years travelling she held a variety of jobs and mixed with a myriad of important people: from Churchill, to the kings of Greece, Egypt and Yugoslavia, and writers such as Noel Coward and Evelyn Waugh. Hermione wrote her memoir To War with Whitaker based on her diaries during this time. After the war Lord Ranfurly was appointed Governor of the Bahamas. Not one to rest on her laurels, Lady Ranfurly set about providing local schools and libraries with the books they lacked. Upon returning to London she continued to send books all over the world, a service which evolved into the organisation Book Aid International, and has sent over 32 million books to libraries across the world.

An extraordinary story. No review can do justice to the writing * Robert Rhodes James, Sunday Express * These absolutely spiffing diaries offer a madcap, aristocratic window behind the lines of war * Daily Mail * Few diaries from any era could be as fascinating . . . This is truly compulsive reading * Woman & Home *