The Cowardly Lioness

This autobiographical account by Jean Rook concentrates on the woman behind the tough public image. As well as stories of the famous, saints and sinners, she describes the horror of discovering she had breast cancer and the events that followed, and enduring the experience of an armed robbery in her home. Her husband never really recovered and died of a brain tumour. She describes the joys of the relationship with her son, her rewarding friendship with such disparate people as Diana Dors and Margaret Thatcher and continuing fun and fights with the barons of Fleet Street.