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by Louise Allan | May 31, 2022 | 0 comments

HEADSHOT, LOUISE, AUTHOR SHOT

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In a few months time, ‘The Mademoiselle Alliance

In a few months time, ‘The Mademoiselle Alliance’, the next book by my friend, Natasha Lester, will start appearing in bookstores. I can assure you this story will not disappoint.

Based on the life of Marie-Madeleine Fourcade, it’s the story of a woman who, during WWII, left her husband and children and joined the French spy network, ‘The Alliance’.

When the leader was captured, Marie-Madeleine stepped up to take the reins, and thus ran this network of over 3000 spies.

Natasha’s books always focus on courageous women who defy convention, and this story is no exception. Told in first person, Marie-Madeleine is brought to life, showing her intelligence, her heroism, her narrow misses, her captures and escapes, the responsibility on her shoulders and her strength and endurance.

Of course it shows her love affair — it wouldn’t be a Natasha Lester book without romance!

Just as Natasha introduced me to Lee Miller in The French Photographer, I hadn’t heard of Marie-Madeleine until I read this story. When I looked her up, there are relatively few citations – a skeletal Wikipedia page, one book that was abridged and poorly translated into English, and I couldn’t find a website dedicated to her.

I read, too, that Charles de Gaulle left her off the French WW II Honours List and she wasn’t awarded the Order of Liberation, although her husband, who contributed far less, was.

It’s a shame that women like Marie-Madeleine aren’t better known — her feats were beyond heroic, her courage saved many lives and she helped the Allies win the war. She deserves for everyone to know her name.

This is the story of a heroic woman nearly forgotten by history, and congrats, Natasha, for shining a light on her life. 🌟

@natashalesterauthor @hachetteaus #themademoisellealliance #bookstagram #bookreview #historicalfiction #worldwar2

I’m a bit late with sharing this as we’re alre

I’m a bit late with sharing this as we’re already nine days into 2025, but I did want to share some of the good times of my year – and there were good times. You can see me smiling in all these photos and videos – surrounded by family members with smiles, too.

What you don’t see are the tears, the sleepless nights, the months of stress and worry. I haven’t shown the legal letters exchanged between our lawyer and the lawyers for the healthcare company that my husband used to work for, who bled him dry and then did everything they could to prevent him leaving. I’m not going to show you the toll this took on his mental and physical health, and on mine, and on our marriage, and on our family.

Instead, I’ve shared the things that brought me joy in 2024:
-watching one of my sons at his graduation recital
-watching my other son leave the nest and explore the world
-sharing Taylor Swift with my daughter, one of the most memorable nights of my life
-seeing my other daughter find happiness with her partner and expanding pet family
-friends who loaned me their ears without judgement or agenda and never got sick of hearing me say the same things time and again (or at least hid their annoyance so well I didn’t notice)
-board and team members who didn’t judge me when I pulled out of commitments because I just didn’t have enough in me to keep going
-a special swimming coach who let me swim in a lane by myself when I needed to be in water but couldn’t be social
-a special swimming club whose default settings are to support each other
-beautiful swimming friends who enticed me back into the ocean where I immediately felt like I’d returned home after too long an absence
-writer friends who checked in on me with texts and messages so I never felt forgotten

I also haven’t shown a special literary agency who signed me up in the dying days of 2024 – more to come about that in 2025!

Onwards I go into 2025 with optimism and hope. I have a bounce in my step for the first time in a couple of years, as well as wishes that I hope might come true – for my writing and my family, and also that I might swim a PB at Nationals in April.

#remembering2024 #newyear2025

Here we are at Coogee Beach yesterday morning, jus

Here we are at Coogee Beach yesterday morning, just before the start of the @christmas10k. I wish I’d taken more photos and video, but it was my first ocean race and I had a few other things on my mind – like nerves! 😬

I did the Santa’s Lap – 3.4 km – although I accidentally added a few hundred metres onto mine (see below). As far as training goes, I couldn’t have been better prepared and informed, thanks to @eswimelena and all my swimming buddies who freely share their knowledge and experience.

Despite that, I still made every rookie mistake possible, including treading water periodically in a vain attempt to keep my cap on my head so I didn’t pollute the ocean with plastic. I ended up losing that battle (sorry fish), then had to fight my hair for visibility as it loved sticking to my goggles every time I tried to sight. I blame this lack of visibility for leading to me to design my own course around a scenic-looking buoy, thus adding a couple of hundred metres onto the lap and a few minutes onto my time.

But nothing could take away from what a great morning it was – perfect conditions. Ocean swimming is for me the best physical and mental booster around. I’ll be back next year – hopefully for the 10K – with my cap glued to my head and the colour of the buoys memorised so I don’t go off course.

#oceanswimming #swimmingwithfriends #openwaterswimming

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