Fearless and Free

Immerse yourself in joy and glamour: this is the dazzling Josephine Baker in her own words.

'She was a beacon of joy and fellowship and her smile...reaches out to us across the years' Financial Times

'A delightful, nourishing read' Guardian

'Josephine Baker certainly shook things up. This memoir demonstrates - vividly - the pleasure she took in doing it' Washington Post

Funny, candid and unconventional: the wildly famous but elusive Josephine Baker tells her own story in this enchanting memoir. Baker took Paris by storm in the 1920s, dazzling audiences with her humour, beauty and effervescence on stage. She became an icon. Hemingway, Cocteau and Picasso admired her; Shirley Bassey adored her. It was said she strolled the streets of Paris with her pet cheetah who wore a diamond collar.

Later, as one of the most recognisable women in the world, she became a spy for the French resistance, her celebrity working as her cover. She was awarded the Légion d'honneur for military service. After the war she became increasingly interested in civil rights, and in 1963 she spoke at the March on Washington alongside Martin Luther King. All this from a girl of mixed heritage, born in Missouri to a poor mother and a father she did not know.

Formed from a series of conversations with the French journalist Marcel Sauvage over a period of more than twenty years, and now translated into English for the first time, this gorgeous book offers an insight into one of the most beguiling figures of the twentieth century.

'The most sensational woman anyone ever saw' Ernest Hemingway

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY IJEOMA OLUO

TRANSLATED BY ANAM ZAFAR AND SOPHIE LEWIS

Hersteller:	Penguin Random House LLC
Anschrift:	One Embassy Gardens 8 Viaduct Gardens UK-SW11 7BW London
Kontakt:	penguinpublicity@penguinrandomhouse.com
Verantwortlicher:	Penguin Random House Ireland
Anschrift:	Morrison Chambers 32 Nassau Street IE-D02 YH68 Dublin
Kontakt:	E-Mail-Adresse 2:https://eu-contact.penguin.ie

Josephine Baker was born in 1906, in St Louis, Missouri. After performing in New York during the Harlem Renaissance as a teenager, she sailed to Paris in 1925 at the age of 19. She became a star there during the 20s, achieving international celebrity. In 1927 she became the first black woman to star in a major motion picture.

When the Second World War broke out Baker joined the French intelligence agency and was awarded for her bravery. During the 50s and 60s she became involved in the civil rights movement - in 1963 she spoke at the March on Washington alongside Martin Luther King. In later life she adopted twelve children. Baker died in 1975.

Anam Zafar is an award-winning literary and commercial translator working from Arabic and French into English. She specialises in literature, environment, international development and politics. Sophie Lewis translates from French and Portuguese. She has translated books by Jules Verne, Marcel Aymé, Violette Leduc, Emmanuelle Pagano, Stendhal and João Gilberto Noll.

Translated gorgeously into English... [Baker's] storytelling is writerly and precise, with satisfying arcs in a single sentence or a page... a delightful, nourishing read Guardian