Escape to Provence

Escape to Provence is the true story of two remarkable women who, with style and energy, carved out new lives for themselves in the South of France in the first part of the last century.

An American, Elisabeth Parrish Starr, and an Englishwoman, Winifred (Peggy) Fortescue, the author of a best-seller of the 1930s and '40s Perfume from Provence, both escaped to Provence for quite different reasons.

Elisabeth, as the result of a personal tragedy, coupled with a need to live her life without censure, and Peggy because she and her husband felt that in Provence 'one could be poor with dignity'.

After dangerous aid work on the Somme during the Great War, for which she was decorated by the French government, Elisabeth bought an ancient house in the hills above Cannes.

Here she drew other expatriate friends around her and, with the now widowed Peggy, lived a bucolic existence in their Proven??al village until the threat of another conflict changed their lives for ever.

Peggy raced to safety in Sussex, in England, while Elisabeth fell under the oppressive Vichy regime that affected everyone in the region during the dark years of war. When the South of France was liberated by American and French forces, Peggy returned to a Provence that would never be the same again.

Over the years their lives had become involved with those of Consuelo, Duchess of Marlborough, the poet John Betjeman, the dashing Spitfire pilot Richard Hillary, the artist Rex Whistler and the families of President Theodore Roosevelt and Charles, 6th Marquess of Anglesey.

As well as the story of two unusual women, Escape to Provence is also a portrait of an era.