Spitfire Girl

Diana Mackintosh And Douglas Thompson

Description

An extraordinary life in the shadows of war and a Century in the making.

Diana Mackintosh came of age to the drone of sirens alerting the people of Malta to the arrival of relentless flights of belligerent German and Italian menace – the bombers she first imagined as a swarm of black flies, pests that stung and cursed her Mediterranean homeland. The three-year onslaught never took a day off; it was endless, but supplies were not. The hope of a shipment of high protein became an ongoing dream. The only time Diana wasn’t hungry was when she slept. Her story of that time, and in 2020 she is one of the very few remaining who experienced it first-hand, makes it clear why Malta was collectively awarded the George Cross, the highest British civilian honour for heroism. Of course, as she argues, no one was trying to be heroic, but somehow they helped reverse the fortunes of the Second World War in the Mediterranean and North Africa.

Now at the age of 101, Diana is also celebrated for her children’s achievements — she helped her eldest son, Sir Cameron Mackintosh, and worked as his unpaid secretary — and for a life in the wings of British cinema, Hollywood and theatreland. Spitfire Girl recounts Diana’s extraordinary life, more than a century in the making.

Sujets

• Personal Memoirs
• Historical
• HISTORY
• Lettres et linguistique
• Women
• Programa espía
• Segunda Guerra Mundial
• Biography
• Modern warfare
• General officer
• Military
• War crime
• Woman
• World War II
• Spyware
• Prisoner of war
• Non-fiction
• Italy
• My Last Duchess
• The Women
• Roman non fictionnel
• Logiciel espion
• General
• Malta
• Survival
• Autobiography
• Germany
• Seconde Guerre mondiale

Informations

• Publié par: Boldwood Books
• Date de parution: 30 juillet 2020
• Nombre de lectures: 1
• EAN13: 9781913721015
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

For my boys, in order of appearance: Ian, Cameron, Robert and Nicky
DIANA MACKINTOSH, at 101, remains as cool and collected as she was when using a Spitfire as a wartime taxi, and socialising with the Queen and the royalty of British cinema, Hollywood and theatreland.
DOUGLAS THOMPSON is the author of many non-fiction books covering an eclectic mix of subjects from major Hollywood biographies to revelatory bestsellers about remarkable people and events. An author, broadcaster and international journalist, he is a regular contributor to major newspapers and magazines worldwide. With Christine Keeler, he wrote her revealing memoir The Truth at Last . That instant bestseller was revised as Secrets and Lies: The Trials of Christine Keeler and the 2020 audio version recorded by actress Sophie Cookson who played Christine to critical acclaim in the successful BBC television series. His works, published in a dozen languages, include the television-based anthology Hollywood People , and a best-selling biography of Clint Eastwood. He collaborated with Michael Flatley on his Sunday Times bestseller Lord of the Dance . Douglas is a director of one of Britain s best-loved literary festivals, and he divides his time between a medieval Suffolk village and California, where he was based as a Fleet Street correspondent and columnist for more than twenty years.
www.dougiethompson.com

CONTENTS
Acknowledgements
Last Man Standing
Introduction: There s Nothing like a Dame
A Note from Robert Mackintosh
Prologue: Good Knight
Act One: Wartime
Chapter One: Family at War
Chapter Two: Hello, Sailor
Chapter Three: Stormy Weather
Chapter Four: Day at the Opera
Chapter Five: Escape
Chapter Six: Sword of Honour
Chapter Seven: Privates on Parade
Act Two: Jazz Time
Chapter Eight: The Music Man
Chapter Nine: The Queen and I
Act Three: Show Time
Chapter Ten: Relative Values
Chapter Eleven: Salad Days
Chapter Twelve: Six Bells Stampede
Chapter Thirteen: The High Road
Afterword: Approaching D-Day
Postscript: Legacy
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Before I attempt to thank all those who have been kind to me in life, which includes almost everyone mentioned in this book other than Hitler and Mussolini and that sort, I must offer a disclaimer. Although I was present at all the events reported on in my story, life around me has always been fast and furious; so certain facts and situations, such as exactly how close we all were in Malta to being bombed out of existence, the wartime heroics of the man I married, and the sometimes glamorous surroundings where I occasionally found myself, were just me getting on with life as it came to me. With the help of my sons, other members of family and friends and the patient ears of Douglas Thompson, I have been able to weave the long journey of my life together with the facts and statistics of the past into Spitfire Girl to give, with the gift of hindsight and a memory that s still in fair order, the context to my involvement with some extraordinary events.
So, my deepest thanks to everyone who has been a part of my life, my boys of course and all the members of my family in my native Malta, as well as in the United Kingdom. All the friends of my past and present who have been a part of my life, some who are still around like me, and others - just as important - who are waiting for us to catch them up later.
Diana Mackintosh, London, April 2020
Having kept a close eye on the progress of Diana s extraordinary journey, I realised that, rather like our mother, it is still going on and one story often reminds us of another. So, if there s enough material - and time - we might have to look at a Volume Two. Meanwhile, I have taken it upon myself to be the family editor , to ensure there is a plausible credence between a good story and exaggeration. A hundred years can play havoc with the truth. So if there are any complaints from anyone living or dead, you can blame me. But you may have to deal with Diana in either case.
Robert Mackintosh, 2020
LAST MAN STANDING

I can be very stubborn. They say that about Malta too.
DIANA MACKINTOSH, JANUARY 2019
The Great Siege of Malta in 1565 rather set the precedent.
It was a remarkable victory, with the Knights Hospitaller and their part-time army overcoming massive enemy forces on land and sea.
This siege, a confrontation of unspeakable brutality, was one of the bloodiest battles ever fought. Historically, it was a fight for the survival of Christianity. For the island of Malta, it was another struggle to hold on to their little piece of dirt and rock. But if vitally strategic Malta fell, the Muslim Ottoman Empire would swiftly dominate the entire Mediterranean. Even Rome was in peril.
Sultan Suleiman controlled the greatest fighting force in the world and had an armada of two hundred ships and an army of forty thousand troops when he launched his battle against the Knights. He planned to destroy Malta and the Knights of St John. Suleiman the Magnificent wanted world control.
On 18 May, all hell was unleashed with a Turkish artillery bombardment and, with unholy horror, the onslaught of wave after wave of screaming scimitar-wielding cavalry. Champion of Malta, Grand Master Jean Parisot de la Valette, vowed that the island would not be taken as long as one Christian lived there. It was close: six hundred knights, several thousand local peasants and mercenaries, and a couple of thousand Maltese irregulars defeated the larger and supposedly overwhelming enemy force. After more than thirty thousand Turks were killed, the Ottomans withdrew and the Knights celebrated victory on 8 September 1565.
The triumph of the Great Siege of Malta is an integral part of world military history. In the three years following, Grand Master de la Valette planned and built the great port and fortress city of Valletta. He died in 1568, a hunting accident of all things, and never saw his great project completed. He is buried in the city that has his name.
The Ottomans never returned in force.
Others did.
INTRODUCTION:THERE S NOTHING LIKE A DAME

All the world s a stage, And all the men and women merely players, They have their exits and their entrances, And one man in his time plays many parts.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, AS YOU LIKE IT , ACT II, SCENE VII (FIRST PUBLISHED 1623)
Sir Cameron Mackintosh celebrated his seventieth birthday on 19 October 2016, two days after the day itself, and the cast of his latest triumph, Half a Sixpence , surprised him with a lively song-and-dance number at his own No l Coward Theatre. There was much more flash-bang-wallop later that evening, when lavish tributes and partying began at an open-air party in central London. It was a grand affair, with much music, singing and dancing, as befitted a man also marking half a century in show business. He had centre stage; yet many were transfixed by one other enthusiastic celebrant. She was intent on enjoying herself. At one point, her dance partner, the singer Michael Ball, had to ask her to slow down her quick steps. Young dancers wondered who the guest was.
Oh, that s Cameron s mother, they were told. The answer resulted in disbelief and awe and mystified arithmetic.
Indeed, the indefatigable Diana Mackintosh was, as ever, intent on enjoying every last moment of the evening. When she returned from a holiday a few weeks earlier, she complained to me about her companions: All they wanted to do was eat and sleep.
Which is more telling when you listen to her middle son, Robert Mackintosh, who explains: Diana doesn t like to travel with people more than sixty years old; she says they slow her down.
And that is her only taboo. She won t slow down. Diana Mackintosh is all about the business of getting on with getting on. Her eyes pass over obstacles - in order to fix on opportunities. I have no precedent for her. Her home in St John s Wood, London, is elegant and tall, with several sets of stairs. When I first began visiting her there, I made the error of attempting to help with tea trays. It was made clear that she would most happily carry the tray, with full china tea service and gluten-free walnut cake, up and down the stairs herself. I m now allowed to help, but only because she knows that I know she doesn t need it.
She has a fierce pride in being capable - and I don t believe it is simply to do with defying age, but a legacy of when being so was truly a matter of life and death. Diana came of age to the drone of sirens alerting the people of Malta to the arrival of relentless flights of belligerent German and Italian menace - the bombers she first imagined as a swarm of black flies, pests that stung and cursed her Mediterranean homeland. The three-year onslaught never took a day off; it was endless, but supplies were not. The hope of a shipment of high protein became an endless dream. The only time Diana wasn t hungry was when she slept, but that was intermittent, and the terrible hunger returned the instant the bombs woke the skies and all those beneath them. The explosions cracked and hurt the senses like punches in her empty stomach. Her story of that time, and she is now one of the few remaining who experienced it first-hand, makes you clearly understand why Malta was collectively awarded the George Cross, the highest British civilian honour for heroism. Of course, as she argues, no one was trying to be heroic. They became so by displaying remarkable hidden strength and, with their endurance, shifting the balance of the Second World War in the Mediterranean and North Africa.
As is her mission, Diana moved on from the events, the suffering the twentieth-century Great Siege of Malta inflicted on the is