HENREY, Madeleine 1906-2004
(Mrs. Robert Henrey, Robert Henrey)

OBITUARY NOTICE—

See index for CA sketch: Born August 13, 1906, in Paris, France; died April 25, 2004, in Normandy, France. Author. Henrey was a prolific author best known for her autobiographical stories about her childhood and adult experiences in France and England, including the popular The Little Madeleine (1951). Born in the industrial section of Paris, her father died when she was still a teenager, and she subsequently moved with her mother to London. In England, Henrey was educated at a convent and then worked in various jobs ranging from manicurist to store worker to secretary. She met her husband, Robert, while she was a manicurist, and the couple moved to Normandy, where they lived on a farm until Adolph Hitler's invading forces compelled them to flee to England in 1940. Henrey soon after that began publishing books about her experiences, with the first being A Farm in Normandy (1941); these were written under either her husband's name, Robert Henrey, or as Mrs. Robert Henrey. Sometimes, her husband edited or collaborated on the books, and the pen name was her way of acknowledging that and the life they shared together. Over the next four decades, Henrey would publish over thirty books, including A Journey to Gibraltar (1943), The Siege of London (1946), Madeleine Grown Up (1952), Her April Days (1963), Julia: Reminiscences of a Year in Madeleine's Life asa London Shop Girl (1971), Green Leaves (1976), and The Golden Visit (1979). Having moved back to the farm in Normandy in 1964, Henrey spent the rest of her life there, even after the death of her husband in 1982.

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Guardian (London, England), April 30, 2004, p. 31.

Times (London, England), May 4, 2004, p. 26.