Overview

This is the story of Sonja Heda and her rise from humble beginnings as a waitress in Holland to walk-on appearances in such famous German films of the Weimar and Nazi eras as The Blue Angel, The Gypsy Baron, Jew Suss, Habanera, Munchausen and, eventually, the starring role in the Nazi screwball comedy Bagdad Capers. Joseph and Magda Goebbels, Hans Albers, Eva Braun, Lillian Harvey, Albert Speer, Marika Rokk since she knew them all, it was inevitable that she should think of writing her autobiography. Though she does not get very far with it, she does pass idle moments composing the reviews she hopes to get for My Life Is like a Fairy Tale: Sonja Heda's stunning autobiography left this reviewer feeling that life is so unfair, for not only can she act and dance, but she can write and how she can write! . . . At last the book that takes the lid off the steamy world of German film-making . . . An insightful portrait of the Nazi elite by the beautiful woman who was at its centre. But this fairy story, a narrative of diminishing options and the advance to death and destruction, is very dark indeed and perhaps that is the nature of both fairy tale and supremacist ideology. AUTHOR: Robert Irwin (born 1946) is a novelist, historian, critic and scholar. He is a fellow of The Royal Society of Literature. He is the author of seven previous novels: The Arabian Nightmare (1983), The Limits of Vision (1986), The Mysteries of Algiers (1988), Exquisite Corpse (1995), Prayer-Cushions of the Flesh (1997), Satan Wants Me (1999) and Wonders Will Never Cease (2016). All his novels have enjoyed substantial publicity and commercial success although he is best known for The Arabian Nightmare which has been translated into twenty languages and is considered by many critics to be one of the great literary fantasy novels of the twentieth century.

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9781912868193

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Reviews

An entertaining romp through early German cinema as well as a multi-layered examination on the nature of storytelling that has a warning for us all. Another masterpiece from Irwin. -- The Digital Fix Irwin is an irrepressibly clever writer but never irritating. --Jeannette Winterson Cultured, clever and funny at times, in a grim Charles Adams way, his novel is engrossing. --Georgia de Chamberet, Bookblast Robert Irwin is indeed particularly brilliant. -- Hilary Bailey, The Guardian

'Irwin is an irrepressibly clever writer but never irritating.' Jeannette Winterson 'An entertaining romp through early German cinema as well as a multi-layered examination on the nature of storytelling that has a warning for us all. Another masterpiece from Robert Irwin.' The Digital Fix. 'Robert Irwin is indeed particularly brilliant.' Hilary Bailey in The Guardian

Author Information

Robert Irwin (born 1946) is a novelist, historian, critic and scholar. He is a fellow of The Royal Society of Literature. He is the author of nine novels: The Arabian Nightmare (1983), The Limits of Vision (1986), The Mysteries of Algiers (1988), Exquisite Corpse (1995), Prayer-Cushions of the Flesh (1997), Satan Wants Me (1999) Wonders Will Never Cease (2016), My Life is Like a Fairy Tale (2019) and The Runes Have Been Cast(forthcoming in 2021). All his novels have enjoyed substantial publicity and commercial success.

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