Escape to Provence

Escape to Provence.    Maureen Emerson - evocation of remarkable women in a remarkable place and time.


This book of war and peace is a true account of the lives of two intrepid and determined women.
 Elisabeth Parrish Starr, after an unhappy upbringing in America and a  harrowing career as a nurse in the Somme, came to settle  in the idyllic countryside of Provence.
Winifred (Peggy) Fortescue, after a penurious marriage then widowhood, also found herself in need of friends and a suitable house in Provence. Peggy, as she was always known, was the author of the best selling book ‘Perfume of Provence’ and shared Elisabeth’s love of the area high above Cannes.

The reader is given an incredible insight into the two women’s lives together and apart. We follow their day to day existence, capturing the essence of a bygone age where manners and appearances played a pivotal role. Their lives were far from mundane, both had ‘histories’ and between them they created a coterie of famous and infamous friends who enriched their lives. Their  somewhat eccentric lifestyles are a blaze of colour in the already colourful Provence.  This shared life of  freedom from the mores of general society allowed both women to grow and develop.

Life however, was rudely interrupted by WWII and whilst Elisabeth resolutely stayed on under the cruel Vichy regime, Peggy returned to a small village in Sussex. Both again worked tirelessly in their own way for the war effort, Elisabeth took up her nursing skills and uniform once more and Peggy was very much involved in the Free French movement.

After liberation,  nothing is ever the same and escape to Provence the second time for Peggy is with great sadness, but with her usual fortitude, she makes another life for herself.

For those of us fortunate enough to live in this area, the  author’s sympathetic evocation of  bygone life is fascinating. We all have our own stories to tell as to why we find ourselves in  Provence and to have a glimpse and be moved by the sense of adventure, of adapting the vagaries of French life of these two indomitable Riviera women is inspirational.


The author, Maureen Emerson, after a circuitous route via London, North Africa, Lebanon, Dallas and Singapore, now lives in Provence.

Escape to Provence (2008)  can be obtained from
www.amazon.co.uk