Madeleine Henrey was a French-born author of over 30 books, mainly of an autobiographical nature, that enjoyed considerable fame in post-war Britain and established rural lid-off-a-small-town titles as a genre.

Life

Henrey was born Madeleine Gal, the daughter of a miner and seamstress, and moved as a child to Soho

Soho

Soho is an area of the City of Westminster and part of the West End of London. Long established as an entertainment district, for much of the 20th century Soho had a reputation for sex shops as well as night life and film industry. Since the early 1980s, the area has undergone considerable...

, in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, following her father's death. She met her future husband, Robert Henrey, at the Savoy Hotel

Savoy Hotel

The Savoy Hotel is a hotel located on the Strand, in the City of Westminster in central London. Built by impresario Richard D'Oyly Carte with profits from his Gilbert and Sullivan operas, the hotel opened on 6 August 1889. It was the first in the Savoy group of hotels and restaurants owned by...

; they were married in 1928 and their romance would prove to be a lifelong attachment lasting until his death in 1982. Her son Bobby Henrey

Bobby Henrey

Bobby Henrey , a former child actor best known for his role as the son of the French ambassador to London in the classic 1948 English film The Fallen Idol, directed by Carol Reed.-Personal:...

 was a child actor, notably in the film The Fallen Idol, the making of which was described in her book A film star in Belgrave Square.

Her writing career stretched from 1941 to 1979 and during this time she brought many of the events of her childhood and career to public attention. She enjoyed a long relationship with publishers, Dent & Sons

J. M. Dent

Joseph Malaby Dent was a British book publisher who produced the Everyman's Library series.Dent was born in Darlington in what is now the Britaania public house. After a short and unsuccessful stint as an apprentice printer he took up bookbinding...

, and most of her works, particularly her early ones, were a commercial success.

Fiction

• Delphine (1947), writing as Robert Henrey, London: Peter Davies

A series of stories

• An Attic in Jermyn Street (1948), writing as Robert Henrey,

The story of a girl reporter

• Philippa, writing as Mrs Robert Henrey,

Non-fiction

• A Farm in Normandy (1941), writing as Robert Henrey

The birth of her child

• A Village in Picadilly (1942), writing as Robert Henrey

The author's experiences during the air raids on London

• Letters from Paris, 1870-1875 ([1942]) by C. de B., trans. and ed. by M.H. writing as Robert Henrey

C. de B. was a political informant to the head of the London house of Rothschild

Rothschild

Rothschild is a common German surname. It is a habitational name from a house distinguished with a red shield , the earliest recorded example dating from the 13th century...

• A Journey to Gibraltar (1943), writing as Robert Henrey

The author's experiences during the air raids on London

The Blitz

The Blitz was the sustained strategic bombing of Britain by Nazi Germany between 7 September 1940 and 10 May 1941, during the Second World War. The city of London was bombed by the Luftwaffe for 76 consecutive nights and many towns and cities across the country followed...

• The Incredible City (1944), writing as Robert Henrey

Part of her London trilogy

• Bloomsbury Fair ([1944]), writing as Robert Henrey,

Three London families

• The Foolish Decade ([1945]), writing as Robert Henrey

London social life and customs

• The Siege of London (1946), writing as Robert Henrey,

Part of her London trilogy, an account of life in London from February 1944 to May 1945

• The King of Brentford (1946), writing as Robert Henrey, London : Peter Davies

On the life of Thomas Selby Henrey

• The Return to the Farm ([1947]), writing as Robert Henrey, London: Peter Davies

Life on their Normandy farm during the Second World War

• A Film Star in Belgrave Square, writing as Robert Henrey, London: Peter Davies

The making of the film The fallen idol

• The Little Madeleine, writing as Mrs Robert Henrey,

Her girlhood

• An Exile in Soho, writing as Mrs Robert Henrey,

Her adolescence

Adolescence

Adolescence is a transitional stage of physical and mental human development generally occurring between puberty and legal adulthood , but largely characterized as beginning and ending with the teenage stage...

• Madeleine Grown Up, writing as Mrs Robert Henrey,

Her love story and marriage

Marriage

Marriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...

• Madeleine Young Wife, writing as Mrs Robert Henrey,

War and peace on her farm in Normandy

• Mistress of Myself, writing as Mrs Robert Henrey,

A golden summer by the sea, a summer on her farm

• Her April Days, writing as Mrs Robert Henrey,

The death of her mother

• Wednesday at Four, writing as Mrs Robert Henrey,

An afternoon in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 and a journey to Moscow

Moscow

Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...

, one year in her life

• Winter Wild, writing as Mrs Robert Henrey,

Clouds on the horizon

• London, writing as Mrs Robert Henrey,

History, with watercolours by Phyllis Ginger

• Paloma, writing as Mrs Robert Henrey,

The story of a friend, a story of friendship

• Madeleine's Journal, writing as Mrs Robert Henrey,

London during coronation year, her contemporary journal

• This Feminine World, writing as Mrs Robert Henrey

Paris dressmakers

• A Daughter for a Fortnight, writing as Mrs Robert Henrey
• The Virgin of Aldermanbury, writing as Mrs Robert Henrey

Rebuilding of the City

City of London

The City of London is a small area within Greater London, England. It is the historic core of London around which the modern conurbation grew and has held city status since time immemorial. The City’s boundaries have remained almost unchanged since the Middle Ages, and it is now only a tiny part of...

• Spring in a Soho Street, writing as Mrs Robert Henrey
• The Dream Makers, writing as Mrs Robert Henrey

The world of women's magazines

• Milou's Daughter, writing as Mrs Robert Henrey

She goes in search of her father's Midi, a winter in the Midi

• A Month in Paris, writing as Mrs Robert Henrey

She revisits the city of her birth

• A Journey to Vienna, writing as Mrs Robert Henrey

Her small son briefly becomes a film star

• Mathilda and the Chickens, writing as Mrs Robert Henrey

The farm in Normandy just after the war, one of her "Farm Books"