{"title":"Frances Faviell","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"dancing-bear-book-frances-faviell-9781911413790","title":"The Dancing Bear","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e'You don't want to mind about any of this, ' said the driver, waving a hand at the grey ruins and the greyer dust. 'In a few days you'll be so used to it that you'll like them. Berlin's a grand place  I'd rather be here than anywhere else in the world, and that's a fact.'\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e'No more perceptive portrait of Germany in defeat has been etched in word than Frances Faviell's first book, \u003cem\u003eThe Dancing Bear\u003c\/em\u003e, which made so powerful an impact upon me that I read it in a single sitting.' Guy Ramsey, \u003cem\u003eDaily Telegraph\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e'Berlin during the decisive years from 1946 to 1949. . The prostitution which paid so handsomely; the black market which brought in rich rewards, although it meant that the Berliners had to part with treasured possessions; the night clubs which catered for still baser tastes; the impoverished intellectuals and the starving professors and the poor who had only their wits with which to eke out a bare sustenance--all this and much else the author describes with insight, incisiveness, and realism.' \u003cem\u003eTimes Literary Supplement\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e'There is great charity in this book; there is the sharp, limpid eye of the artist; there is sound realism; and there is an unswerving, passionate desire to tell the truth. John Connell, \u003cem\u003eEvening News\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e'They were hard and terrible times, and brilliantly does Frances Faviell describe them for us. We meet the Altmann family and follow their joys and troubles. . The book is a brilliant pen-picture of the post-war years. We have British, French, American and Russian characters, but the background is always Berlin, and the strange tunes to which its bear danced.' \u003cem\u003eLiverpool Daily Post\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThis new edition includes an afterword by Frances Faviell's son, John Parker, and additional supplementary material.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49520464363793,"sku":"GOR008695371","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49952976077073,"sku":"CIN1911413791VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50313503506705,"sku":"GOR009099341","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51057619566865,"sku":"NIN9781911413790","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52428776931601,"sku":"NLS9781911413790","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1911413791.jpg?v=1751413740"},{"product_id":"chelsea-concerto-book-frances-faviell-9781911413776","title":"A Chelsea Concerto","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e'Take off your coat, ' said the doctor. I took it off. 'And your dress, ' he said. 'It's too dangerous - the folds may catch in the debris and bring the whole thing down.' I took off the dress. 'Fine, ' he said shortly. 'It'll have to be head first. We'll hold your thighs. Go down and see if it's possible to give an injection. Can you grip the torch with your teeth?'\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eFrances Faviell lived in Chelsea before and during the London Blitz, having became a Red Cross volunteer when World War I began. Chelsea was particularly heavily bombed and the author was often in the heart of the action, witnessing or involved in fascinating and horrific events through 1940 and 1941. Her memoir evokes an unforgettable cast, Londoners and refugees alike, caught up together in extraordinarily dangerous times - not forgetting the 'Green Cat', a Chinese statuette, standing on the author's window sill as the home's talismanic protector.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eFrances Faviell's memoir is powerful in its blend of humour, tenderness and horror, including the most haunting ending of any wartime memoir. \u003cem\u003eA Chelsea Concerto\u003c\/em\u003e is reprinted now for the first time since 1959, with a new introduction by Virginia Nicholson.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e'Irresistible reading. There could be no more graphic account of what one first-aid worker and her small party witnessed and did during the London Blitz . while characters are sketched in with a novelist's art, the impression left is one of stark truth.' \u003cem\u003eBirmingham Post\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e'I am so happy that \u003cem\u003eA Chelsea Concerto\u003c\/em\u003e is back in print. It is a gem of a book, one of the best personal memoirs of W2 on the home front, written with an artist's eye for detail and immediacy.' \u003cem\u003eKate Atkinson\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49855864406289,"sku":"GOR009016333","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":49926268944657,"sku":"CIN1911413775A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50204115861777,"sku":"GOR011201591","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51057616552209,"sku":"NIN9781911413776","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51709572120849,"sku":"CIN1911413775G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51915499340049,"sku":"CIN1911413775VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52482922283281,"sku":"NLS9781911413776","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52901531189521,"sku":"GOR012000528","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1911413775.jpg?v=1751453724"},{"product_id":"the-dancing-bear-rare-book-frances-faviell-1737112278ada","title":"The Dancing Bear","description":"\u003cp\u003e1954. Second Impression. 234 pages. No dust jacket. Red cloth covered boards with gilt. Pages remain clear with minimal tanning and foxing. Previous owner's inscription to half title. Boards have mild edge wear with slight rubbing to surfaces. Mild crushing to spine ends. Sunning to spine and board edges. Silver lettering has become dull.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51242336092433,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51242338287889,"sku":"1737112278ADA","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1737112278ADA_1.jpg?v=1741084871"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/en-gb\/collections\/author-books-by-frances-faviell.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}