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Of Fortunes and War: Clare Hollingworth – first of the female war correspondents
Patrick Garrett

Of Fortunes and War: Clare Hollingworth – first of the female war correspondents

A chance find in the family attic launches an author off on a globetrotting odyssey - to learn the truth about his great aunt, Clare Hollingworth,  the legendary British war correspondent. Clare was already famous for having got the “scoop of the century” - the outbreak of the Second World War, from the Polish front lines in 1939. But her old trunk revealed that there was a lot of her life story still waiting to be reported…

Did she even know that her former mentor had secretly been working for the Soviet Union? Or that her assistant in pre-war Poland was in fact a Comintern agent? And what about the KGB’s suspicions that she herself was all along working for MI6?

Clare had an uncanny ability to appear on the front lines of world events - her life reads like an encyclopedia of 20th Century Warfare. From witnessing the first aerial bombing against  England in the Great War, through Hitler's Blitzkrieg into Poland, Clare’s résumé includes the desert war in North Africa, civil war in Greece, terrorism in Jerusalem, and guerrilla warfare in Vietnam and the jungles of Borneo.

The story is however about both love and war. We learn of the fiancée whom Clare abandoned in the 1930s, the husband she ultimately left to go off and report the war, and the husband she rushed back to, from the battlefields of Vietnam, but who died on her return. Clare never married again, and promptly flew off to cover an outbreak of fighting in Algiers. More than anything, it becomes clear, she was married to journalism.

Here at last is the full story of Clare's century-long journey from rural England, through wars and revolutions, to Britain's final “End of Empire” in Hong Kong.

Book Details:

  • Author: Patrick Garrett
  • On Submission
  • Rights Sold
    • UK: Two Roads
Amazon
Patrick Garrett

Patrick Garrett

  Patrick Garrett was born in London, grew up in Scotland, but has lived in Eastern Europe and Asia since the 1990s. He began his working life as a television editor in Glasgow. After a stint doing TV commercials in Hamburg, during the turbulent Yeltsin years he moved to Moscow to work in television news for a range of international broadcasters including BBC, ITN, NBC, and CBS. He reported news events across the entire former Soviet Union, including numerous assignments to cover the vicious Chechen Wars in the mid 1990's. He moved to Hong Kong in 1997 to observe its Handover of S...
More about Patrick Garrett

Book Reviews

  • "A gripping account of a restless life that also illuminates profound social changes."
    South China Morning Post
  • "The story of how Clare Hollingworth achieved her great scoop, the outbreak of World War Two, during her first week as a journalist is well known, but it is always worth telling again, especially when it is done with such verve and skill as it is by Patrick Garrett."
    The Correspondent
  • "A gripping account of a restless life that also illuminates profound social changes."
    South China Morning Post
  • "The list of her assignments reads like a potted history of warfare, espionage and terrorism…she emerges in Garrett’s book as a rounded personality…The story of her life is a kaleidoscope of world events, shot through with determination and courage. It’s a great read."
    Literary Review
  • "The list of her assignments reads like a potted history of warfare, espionage and terrorism...she emerges in Garrett's book as a rounded personality...The story of her life is a kaleidoscope of world events, shot through with determination and courage. It's a great read."
    Literary Review
  • "This moving tribute…"
    Janine di Giovanni, Spectator
  • "...this compellingly readable biography..."
    Country Life

Book News

  • Documents figure in Antiques Roadshow 30 May 2018

    A cache of mysterious old documents discovered by author Patrick Garrett will feature in a Special Antiques Roadshow – ‘Pioneering Women’ – on BBC at 8pm on Sunday June 10th.

    The documents belonged to the celebrated War Correspondent, Clare Hollingworth, and proved to be the impetus and inspiration for Patrick’s biography of Hollingworth, “Of Fortunes & War”, published last year.

    The programme was filmed in the Houses of Parliament, and is timed to celebrate a century since women secured the vote in the UK.

  • Biography of Clare Hollingworth optioned for film. 30 Apr 2017

    Patrick’s Garrett’s biography of his great aunt, the journalist Clare Hollingworth,
    Of Fortunes and War, has been optioned by Eclipse Films.

  • Biography of Clare Hollingworth to Two Roads 23 Mar 2017

    Two Roads have bought World English rights in Of Fortunes and War a life of the veteran war correspondent, who has just died at 105, written by her great-nephew.

  • An interview with Patrick Garrett 10 Mar 2017

    Patrick Garrett has given a fascinating interview to Womanthology, on his great aunt Clare Hollingworth, the subject of his book Of Fortunes and War.

    Uncovering the hidden secrets of Clare Hollingworth, the original warrior war correspondent and woman on the front-line – Patrick Garrett, Author

  • Two Roads buys Clare Hollingworth biography 09 Feb 2017

    Two Roads have bought World English rights in Patrick Garrett’s biography of his great aunt Of Fortunes and War: Clare Hollingworth – first of the female war correspondents

  • Of Fortunes and War extract in the Mail 16 Jan 2017

    There continues to be huge interest in Clare Hollingworth, who sadly passed away last week. This weekend, the Daily Mail serialised a passage from Patrick Garrett’s biography Of Fortunes and War:

    You can’t arrest me, I’m naked! What pioneering war correspondent Clare Hollingworth - the first to report on Germany’s invasion of Poland - told police who accused her of spying

    There was also a piece in the Times:

    Reporter who broke news of war spent final years penniless

  • Clare Hollingworth 13 Jan 2017

    As most will be aware, this week brought the sad news of the passing of the great Clare Hollingworth, recently memorialised by Patrick Garrett in Of Fortunes and War.  

    The global response has been extraordinary. The following are just a handful of the more interesting pieces:

    New York Times

    Channel Four 

    BBC archive

    The Independent

    BBC Radio Four

  • Another great review for Patrick Garrett 01 Nov 2016

    Patrick Garrett’s fascinating biography of journalist Clare Hollingworth, Of Fortunes and War, has received another rave review, this time from the Literary Review:

    ‘The list of her assignments reads like a potted history of warfare, espionage and terrorism…she emerges in Garrett’s book as a rounded personality…The story of her life is a kaleidoscope of world events, shot through with determination and courage. It’s a great read.’

  • Great review for Of Fortunes and War in The Oldie 18 Oct 2016

    There’s yet another terrific review for Patrick Garrett’s fascinating biography of journalist Clare Hollingworth in the current edition of The Oldie.

    “All the excitement of a fast moving thriller.”

  • Time Magazine covers launch of Of Fortunes and War 11 Oct 2016

    Patrick Garrett’s fascinating biography of journalist Clare Hollingworth continues to generate huge media interest, with a long piece in the current issue of Time Magazine.

    The Correspondent Who Scooped the World

  • Of Fortunes and War in The Correspondent 03 Oct 2016

    There’s a terrific review for Patrick Garrett’s fascinating biography of journalist Clare Hollingworth in The Correspondent.

    “The story of how Clare Hollingworth achieved her great scoop, the outbreak of World War Two, during her first week as a journalist is well known, but it is always worth telling again, especially when it is done with such verve and skill as it is by Patrick Garrett.”

    Full review

  • Patrick Garrett interviewed by Deutsche Welle 01 Sep 2016

    There’s an interesting interview with author Patrick Garrett on his new biography of war reporter Clare Hollingworth in the Deutsche Welle this week.

    We are in the midst of an age of upheaval, marked by international crises. Does Hollingworth continue to observe these developments, despite her advanced age, and if so, how does she view them in light of her experiences?

    Clare is a few weeks away from her 105th birthday, and she is now quite frail. Long ago she researched many of the themes that are only now achieving major prominence. [Republican presidential candidate] Donald Trump is suggesting that the US should abandon its NATO allies: This was an angle that Clare followed up in the 1960s. Clare was in Israel when the state was founded and all over the Middle East during World War II.

    Religion-focused terrorism was a subject she wrote about and in fact was attacked for by academics. Some of her remarks have proved sadly prescient. She wrote about how effective the foot soldier could be against a superpower using the simplest tactics: We see that, too, in the Middle East. Based in China, she wrote about potential tensions in the South China Sea and Pacific long before they were daily news fodder.

    As for watching today - she still likes to feel that she is part of the news world and insists on keeping her passport by her bedside and her shoes beside her bed in case she is called out to cover a story. Obviously that isn’t going to happen anymore, but it was what gave her a sense of purpose, and is perhaps one reason for her longevity.

    Full interview (in English)

  • Great review for Of Fortunes and War 26 Aug 2016

    Patrick Garrett’s terrific new biography of journalist Clare Hollingworth, Of Fortunes and War, has received a great review in the South China Morning Post.

    ‘A gripping account of a restless life that also illuminates profound social changes.’

    Book review: the life of Clare Hollingworth, war correspondent

  • Long feature on Of Fortunes and War in the Telegraph 16 Aug 2016

    Patrick Garrett has written a very interesting long piece in the Telegraph on his new book Of Fortunes and War, a biography of pioneering journalist Clare Hollingworth.

    How the Telegraph’s Clare Hollingworth broke the news of World War II – and saved thousands from the Nazis

  • Patrick Garrett in The Courier 10 Aug 2016

    There’s an interesting piece in The Courier today on Patrick Garrett’s new biography of journalist Clare Hollingworth.

    The Courier

  • Patrick Garrett in Quartz magazine 05 Aug 2016

    Patrick Garrett has written a fascinating new piece for Quartz magazine, based on his new book Of Fortunes and War: Clare Hollingworth, first of the female war correspondents, published last month by Thistle Books.

    ‘From the 1930s onward, veteran war correspondent Clare Hollingworth made a century-long journey from rural Leicestershire, through wars and revolutions in Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, and Asia, to Hong Kong in the final days of the British empire. A recently released biography of her life, by her nephew Patrick Garrett, chronicles her “uncanny Zelig-like ability to appear on the front lines of world events.”’ Inside Romania’s 1941 failed coup, with the world’s first female war correspondent

  • Clare Hollingworth life would make good film 14 Oct 2015

    Clare Hollingworth’s life story attracting considerable interest with two million page impressions in last week of coverage. Smithsonian Magazine is latest to say it would make a good film.

    http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/the-woman-who-scooped-world-war-ii-180956901/?utm_source=twitter.com&no-ist

  • Clare Hollingworth in the news 09 Oct 2015

    There’s a long article in The Daily Mail on Clare Hollingworth. The agency is going out with an authorised biography by Patrick Garrett this week

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3262251/The-woman-Hitler-s-tanks-Polish-border-discovered-WWII-begin-Fascinating-life-pistol-packing-journalist-dubbed-Scarlet-Pimpernel-helping-3-000-flee-Nazis.html