From Award Winning author Pamela Binnings Ewen comes That Last Summer, the highly awaited, captivating follow up to The Queen of Paris, continuing the story of Coco Chanel leading up to WW II.
France, 1939. While storm clouds rise over Germany, the beautiful people—Coco Chanel, Emilienne, Hollywood golden girl Gloria Grahame and her lover, the American Ambassador Kennedy—and even more minor stars like Wallis and Edward Simpson, artists Salvadore Dali and Pablo Picasso—are all butterflies without a care in the world, sunning themselves on the glittering sapphire coast, the French Riviera.
Coco’s old friend, Winston Churchill, is on the Riviera too, dismissed from the British Parliament which refuses to accept his warnings of a coming war. During that last summer, Churchill paints when the sun is right, writes his new book when it’s not. Sometimes he even takes a night off, gambling in Monte Carlo.
Germany is arming, Churchill warns, if anyone turns his way to listen. Forget that sham agreement signed in Munich last year. Why, the Hun have already annexed Austria, just marched right in with Herr Hitler’s troops. The war machine is moving, troops now threaten Poland. War is inevitable, Churchill claims.
Prepare.
But no one listens. The sun is brilliant, the water clear and cool. Here on the Riviera are balls, weekend parties, dinners, and dancing every night. And then there’s Monte Carlo. Churchill is old news.
In the summer of 1939, in the south of France, no one pays a lick of attention to Winston Churchill—until at last it’s too late.