The French Photographer
Author: Natasha Lester
Publisher: Hachette Australia
Release Date: 26 March 2019
Pages:
R.R.P: $29.99
Manhattan, Paris, 1942: When Jessica May's successful modelling career is abruptly cut short, she is assigned to the war in Europe as a photojournalist for Vogue. But when she arrives the army men make her life as difficult as possible. Three friendships change that: journalist Martha Gellhorn encourages Jess to bend the rules, paratrooper Dan Hallworth takes her to places to shoot pictures and write stories that matter, and a little girl, Victorine, who has grown up in a field hospital, shows her love. But success comes at a price.
France, 2005: Australian curator D'Arcy Hallworth arrives at a beautiful chateau to manage a famous collection of photographs. What begins as just another job becomes far more disquieting as D'Arcy uncovers the true identity of the mysterious photographer- and realises that she is connected to D'Arcy's own mother, Victorine.
My Review
Thoughts on the book: CONTAINS SPOILERS
The French Photographer is the new novel from bestselling author Natasha Lester told in dual Points of View in the past and the present day. First point of view is told in the past and is the inspiring story of Jessica May who was a woman who liked bucking the trend from the moment she was born. When her partner finally takes a step to far in the wrong direction and essentially ends Jessica's modelling career, she turns to her fallback career as a photographer and enlists in the war to be Vogue's photojournalist. But it's hard for Jess let alone any woman to do their jobs when the men think they are more supierior than the woman and are available to move around much more freely. Upon Jess's first time at the front she meets paratrooper Dan Hallworth in the trenches and from here they develop a special friendship. But friendships in the war never tend to end well with death around every corner. Will Jess and Dan's friendship stand the test of war? The second point of view is told in the present day where D'Arcy Hallworth arrives overseas to oversee the transportation of a famous collection of photographs from a mysterious photographer. While packaging up the photographs she starts to suspect who the photographer is and is lead on a journey that just may hold the key to who D'Arcy is.
A massive thank you to Alana from Hachette Australia for allowing me to be apart of this amazing blog tour and for giving me the chance to send through some questions to the author Natasha Lester. The French Photographer was my first book that I had read by Natasha and I absolutely adored it.
I believe that most of Natasha's books are told from pivotal historical moments in time where woman seem to be tying to break through the mould that the men of the world have placed them in. In The French Photographer I loved how she was inspired by Lee Miller and from this true story our main character Jess was formed and from the moment we are introduced to Jess we know that we are in for a real treat. Jessica May is written as a real inspiration for woman of her time. At the beginning of the novel Jess is a much sought after fashion model who has been living with a man out of wedlock, which in that time was unheard of, until he makes one wrong move that ends her modelling career. But being a woman never slows down Jess and she believes that whatever a man can do woman can do just as well if not better and this is proven time and time again throughout The French Photograph. No matter what is thrown at Jess she always makes the best out of the situation and is an inspiration to many woman during that time.
The will they or won't they relationships between Jessica May and Dan Hallworth in 1942 and the 2005 relationship between D'Arcy Hallworth and Josh Vaughn kept me captivated throughout the book. Both seemed to progress in kind of the same way where it was a slow burn which had the potential to be one of the greatest love stories of all time. You can clearly see that they care about their significant other and want to persue something more but are very hesitant as they want to protect their heart from being broken but both couples aren't in the best of circumstances when they find each other, with Jess and Dan oversees in a war zone and D'Arcy and Josh both in Paris for the art work, and this could contribute to why they don't persue it straight away. Yes they could have had a meaningless fling but they obviously know that this is something special and deserves to be treasured.
The mystery of how our two main points of view are connected is the greatest thrill of all in the book and one that had me devouring The French Photographer as quickly as I could. I was so excited when I learnt of how they were all connected but was devastated when it didn't end the way I expected it to all wrapped up in a neat package. I expected that we would find out for certain who the father of Jess's daughter was and that they would all get together and then Dan and Jess would live happily ever after. I couldn't hold back the tears while reading the last couple of chapters of the book and discovered that on the eve of the big reunion, where we would get our big happily ever after, our beloved Jess had passed away. I was heartbroken and kept turning the pages expecting more but discovered there was no more and this was my only let down of the whole book.
Rating: 4/5
Q&A with author of The French Photographer by Natasha Lester
Congratulations on the release of your new fabulous book The French Photographer. I absolutely adored it. How would you describe the book for those people who may not have heard of it yet?
It’s the story of one of the very first female photojournalists fighting to be allowed to do her job in Europe during WWII. It’s also a love story, and there’s a contemporary storyline woven in, set in a French chateau. The book travels the world, from New York, to Italy, to London, to France and even to Sydney. There’s delicious French food, a beautiful French chateau, as well as a story about what happens to women in wartime, and a story about a group of women who did not give up, no matter what happened.
The French Photographer is a unique love story as well as a fantastic portrayal of a woman’s fight to be equal. What inspired you to write this amazing tale?
I was inspired by Lee Miller, Vogue model turned photojournalist. She was an incredible woman who suffered immense hardship to report on the war in Europe. Then, after the war, despite her hard work and her amazing body of work, she was forgotten. Her son resurrected her and legacy and she is now regarded as an icon. There were so many elements of her life that inspired me so, my main character, Jessica May, was created out of those elements.
Each of your characters are very unique and hold a special place in all our hearts who have read The French Photographer. Who was your favourite character to write and are they all based on someone?
Jessica May was my favourite to write, closely followed by Dan Hallworth. They were gifts from the writing muse and they came to me fairly easily, almost begging to be written. Jess is based on extraordinary photojournalist Lee Miller as I mentioned above, and many more real life people appear in the book such as Martha Gellhorn, also a war correspondent but often simply referred to as one of Ernest Hemingway’s wives. Jess and Martha become great friends and fight together against the often believable sexism that the women faced.
I loved your writing in The French Photographer. Do you have any more book in the works that you can tell us about?
I am currently working on a book called The Dior Bequest, which will be out in late March next year. It’s another dual narrative with a main historical storyline plus a contemporary storyline threaded through, and is set all over the world from Paris to Cornwall, to Sydney, to London.
Finally who are your go to authors and go to books when you want to read a good book?
I love Kate Morton’s books; she can always be replied upon to deliver a fabulous story. Margaret Atwood has long been a favourite author of mine too, Recently I have loved Madeleine Miller’s Circe and Amor Towles’ A Gentleman in Moscow.
Comments
Post a Comment