Carol Ann Lee

In this definitive new biography, Carol Ann Lee provides the answer to one of the most heartbreaking questions of modern times: Who betrayed Anne Frank and her family to the Nazis? Probing this startling act of treachery, Lee brings to light never before documented information about Otto Frank and the individual who would claim responsibility -- revealing a terrifying relationship that lasted until the day Frank died. Based upon impeccable research into rare archives and filled with excerpts from the secret journal that Frank kept from the day of his liberation until his return to the Secret Annex in 1945, this landmark biography at last brings into focus the life of a little-understood man -- whose story illuminates some of the most harrowing and memorable events of the last century.

The Hidden Life of Otto Frank

"Infamous, I have become disowned, but I am one of your own." ?Myra Hindley, from her unpublished autobiography On November 15, 2002, Myra Hindley died in prison, one of the rare women whose crimes were deemed so indefensible that "life" really did mean for life. Without a doubt Britain's most notorious murderess, her death has done nothing to diminish the shadow she casts across the collective consciousness. But who was the woman behind the headlines? How could a seemingly normal girl, with no intimations of violence in her character, grow up to commit such terrible acts? Her defenders?many of them high-profile individuals?claim she fell under Ian Brady's spell, but is this the truth? Was her insistence that she had changed, that she felt deep remorse and had reverted to the Catholicism of her childhood genuine or a calculating bid to win parole? This book explores these questions and many others, drawing on a wide range of resources, including Hindley's own unseen writings, hundreds of recently released prison files, fresh interviews, and extensive new research. It is the first in-depth study of Hindley, returning her humanity to her and thereby revealing her crimes as even more incomprehensible. Scrupulously researched and compellingly well written, this book is the challenging, definitive biography of Britain's "most hated woman."

The Life and Death of Myra Hindley

One of Your Own

Anne Frank and the Children of the Holocaust

David Smith

The chief prosecution witness in the Moors Murders trial gives his account of the case after more than four decades of silence Despite standing as chief prosecution witness in the Moors Murders trial, David Smith was vilified by the public due to the accusations thrown at him by Myra Hindley and Ian Brady about his involvement in their crimes. Hindley's later confession that she and Brady had lied in an attempt to reduce their sentences did little to diminish the slurs against his name. For over four decades, Smith was asked by writers and film-makers to tell his story. Apart from a handful of brief interviews, he always refused. Carol Ann Lee met Smith during her research for One of Your Own, her critically acclaimed biography of Hindley, following which he finally agreed to reveal all. In Evil Relations (previously published as Witness), interviews, archival research and, most significantly, David Smith's own vivid memoir are fused to create an unforgettable, often harrowing account of his life before, during and after the Moors Murders. David Smith lived in rural Ireland with his wife prior to his death in May 2012. He is survived by four children and several grandchildren. Carol Ann Lee is an acclaimed biographer and has written extensively on the Holocaust. Her most recent publication, One of Your Own, focused on the life and death of Myra Hindley.

The Man who Bore Witness Against the Moors Murderers

Evil Relations

Much has been written about the brutal crimes of Peter Sutcliffe, the Yorkshire Ripper, and - thirty-five years after he was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of thirteen women - scarcely a week goes by without some mention of him in the media. In any story featuring Sutcliffe, however, his victims are incidental, often reduced to a tableau of nameless faces. But each woman was much more than the manner of her death, and in Somebody's Mother, Somebody's Daughter, Carol Ann Lee tells, for the first time, the stories of those women who came into Sutcliffe's murderous orbit, restoring their individuality to them and giving a voice to their families, including the twenty-three children whom he left motherless. Based on previously unpublished material and fresh, first-hand interviews the book examines the Yorkshire Ripper story from a new perspective: focusing on the women and putting the reader in a similar position to those who lived through that time. The killer, although we know his identity, remains a shadowy figure throughout, present only as the perpetrator of the attacks. By talking to survivors and their families, and to the families of the murdered women, Carol Ann Lee gets to the core truths of their lives and experiences, not only at the hands of Sutcliffe but also with the Yorkshire Police and their crass and ham-fisted handling of the case, where the women were put into two categories: prostitutes and non-prostitutes. In this book they are, simply, women, and all have moving backstories. The grim reality is that not enough has changed within society to make the angle this book takes on the Yorkshire Ripper case a purely historical one. Recent news stories have shown that women and girls who come forward to report serious crimes of a sexual nature are often judged as harshly - and often more so - than the men who have wronged them. The Rochdale sex abuse scandal, the allegations against Harvey Weinstein, and the US President's deplorable comments about women are vivid reminders that those in positions of power regard women as second class citizens. At the same time, the discussions arising from these recent stories, and much of the reporting, show that women are judged today as much on their preferences, habits and appearance as they were at the time of the Yorkshire Ripper attacks. The son of Wilma McCann, Sutcliffe's first known murder victim, told the author, 'We still have a very long way to go' and in that regard he is correct. Hard-hitting and wholly unique in approach, this timely book sheds new light on a case that still grips the nation.

Somebody's Mother, Somebody's Daughter

"The true story of the last female execution in Britain"--Cover.

The Real Ruth Ellis Story

A Fine Day for a Hanging

'The whole story is so terrible. You will be disgusted and amazed.' Graham Young, confessing his crimes to detectives There are few criminal cases more astonishing yet less well known than that of Graham Young. A quintessentially British crime story set in the post-war London suburbs, it involves two sensational trials, murders both certain and probable, a clutch of forgiving relatives, and scores of surviving victims. Fourteen in the summer of 1962, Graham stood in the Old Bailey dock charged with poisoning a schoolfriend and family members by adding antimony to their packed lunches, Sunday roast and morning cups of tea. Diagnosed with multiple personality disorders, Graham's trial resulted in his detainment at Broadmoor, where he was the youngest patient. But it was on his release from Broadmoor that Graham caused the greatest harm. Finding employment in Hadlands, a photographic supplies firm, his role as junior storeman meant he was expected to make tea and coffee for his colleagues. And very soon, numerous members of staff began experiencing crippling stomach pains... A psychologically astute insight into the mind of a complex and intriguing individual, A Passion for Poison is true crime at its best. Praise for Carol Ann Lee Somebody's Mother, Somebody's Daughter: Victims and Survivors of the Yorkshire Ripper 'My book of the year... the first time the stories of the women who came into the sights of notorious serial killer Peter Sutcliffe have been told, and it gives voice to their families... deeply poignant' - Lynda La Plante One of Your Own: The Life & Death of Myra Hindley 'Scrupulously unsensational and as good a biography of Hindley as we'll get' - Sunday Times

As featured in the Mail on Sunday, the extraordinary tale of the schoolboy teacup poisoner

A Passion for Poison

Anne Frank's diary is the world's most widely read work of non-fiction after the Bible, yet never before has an in-depth biography of Anne Frank, the exceptional, bright teenager who died in the concentration camps, been published. Carol Ann Lee has been allowed access to a number of previously unpublished documents and gives a definitive account of Anne Frank's short life before, during and after the diary. 'Vivid and shattering... a work of real sympathy and imagination.' Julie Myerson, Mail on Sunday 'In Carol Ann Lee's excellent Roses from the Earth, she reveals in detail, with the help of Otto Frank's hitherto unpublished memoirs, the untold story of what happened to Anne in the camps.' David Robinson, Scotsman

The Biography of Anne Frank

Roses from the Earth

The definitive account of a crime that shocked the country and continues to fascinate today.On 7 August 1985, Nevill and June Bamber, their daughter Sheila and her two young sons Nicholas and Daniel were discovered shot to death at White House Farm in Essex. The murder weapon was found on Sheila's body; a bible lay at her side. All the windows and doors of the farmhouse were secure, and the Bambers' son, 24-year-old Jeremy, had alerted police after apparently receiving a phone call from his father, who told him Sheila had 'gone berserk' with the gun. It seemed a straightforward case of murder-suicide, but a dramatic turn of events was to disprove the police's theory. In October 1986, Jeremy Bamber was convicted of killing his entire family in order to inherit his parents' substantial estates. He has always maintained his innocence.Drawing on interviews and correspondence with many of those closely connected to the events - including Jeremy Bamber - and a wealth of previously unpublished documentation, Carol Ann Lee brings astonishing clarity to a complex and emotive case. She describes the yearsof rising tension in the family that culminated in the murders, and provides clear insight into the background of each individual and their relationships within the family unit.Scrupulously fair in its analysis, The Murders at White House Farm is an absorbing portrait of a family, a time and a place, and a gripping account of one of Britain's most notorious crimes.

The Murders at White House Farm

A Novel (P.S.)

The Winter of the World

In the half-light of early morning on October 7, 1965, 17-year-old David Smith called Hyde police from a telephone box on Hattersley overspill estate in Manchester. The story that he had to tell--of the brutal murder he had witnessed the previous evening--set in motion the detection of Britain's most infamous serial killings: the Moors Murders. Despite standing as chief prosecution witness at the subsequent trial, David Smith was vilified and hated by a public who knew nothing of the facts behind the accusations thrown at Smith by the killers themselves in an attempt to gain lesser sentences. Myra Hindley's own confession, 20 years later, that she and Ian Brady had lied about Smith's involvement in their crimes, did little to diminish the slurs against his name. For almost 45 years, David Smith has been asked by writers and filmmakers to tell his story. With the exception of no more than a handful of very brief interviews, he has refused. Carol Ann Lee met Smith during her research for One of Your Own, her critically acclaimed biography of Hindley, following which he finally agreed to reveal all regarding the case and his involvement in it. In Witness, interviews, archival research, and, most significantly, David Smith's own vivid memories are fused to create an unforgettable, often harrowing account of his life before, during, and after the Moors Murders.

The Story of David Smith, Chief Prosecution Witness in the Moors Murders Case

Witness

Expands on the story of Anne Frank revealed in her diary by providing details about the family and friends who shaped her life and gave her the strength to endure two years of hiding in an attic in Nazi-occupied Holland.

Her Life Retold for Children

Anne Frank's Story

Peter Howse

For three days Billy Hughes played psychological games with Gill Moran and her family, while secretly murdering them one by one. Blizzards hampered the police manhunt, but they learned where the dangerous criminal was hiding and closed in on the cottage. A desperate car chase ensued, ending with a shoot-out and the killer's death. There was just one survivor. The plot for a great crime novel? No, it all actually happened in January 1977. The Pottery Cottage Murders is a gripping, fast-paced account of a criminal case that reads like fiction but is terrifyingly true. What took place at a family home on the Derbyshire moors in 1977 made the name Pottery Cottage synonymous with horror: an address briefly as infamous as 112 Ocean Avenue in the US town of Amityville, where a young man had murdered his entire family three years earlier, and the home of married killers Fred and Rosemary West on Cromwell Street in Gloucester. Afterwards, the determination of sole survivor Gill Moran to prevent any written or dramatic accounts of the case saw 'Pottery Cottage' largely vanish from public consciousness, yet those events changed British history. Now in her eighties, Gill has finally given permission for her story to be told - by the former Chief Inspector who saved her life over forty years before.

The Pottery Cottage Murders

En biografi

Anne Frank 1929-1945

Otto Frank was the father of the most famous girl of the 20th Century. It was he who found her diaries after her death and his determination to see them published around the world. This is the first time his story has been told. Born into a prosperous Jewish family in Berlin, his life was a portrait in miniature of the century: decorated after the Battle of the Somme, forced to flee Germany in the 1930s, betrayed and imprisoned by the Nazis in the Holocaust and finally gaining recognition bybearing witness to the century's horrors though the writings of his young daughter. Carol Ann Lee has written a powerful biography of an extraordinary man's life caught up in history.

A biography of Anne Frank, a thirteen-year-old German-Jewish girl who recorded her thoughts and experiences while in hiding from the Nazis for two years before being discovered and taken to a concentration camp.

1929-1945

Biografía de Ana Frank

Qui a dénoncé Anne Frank et les siens ? Pour la première fois, Carol Ann Lee apporte un éclairage nouveau sur leur délation par un certain Tonny Ahlers, agent de la Gestapo. Témoignages exclusifs et nombreux documents d'archives à l'appui, l'auteur retrace l'itinéraire tragique des Frank et l'incroyable destin d'Otto, chef de famille exemplaire. Directeur d'entreprise ingénieux et exigeant, père attentif mais époux négligent, prisonnier à Auschwitz, gardien - abusif selon certains - de la mémoire de sa fille Anne, voici le portrait d'un homme dont les ambitions ont sans cesse été malmenées par les aléas de l'histoire. Né en 1889 dans une riche famille juive de Francfort, Otto Frank se destine à une carrière d'homme d'affaires lorsque la Première Guerre mondiale éclate. Appelé à défendre son pays, il accomplira son devoir jusqu'à l'armistice. A son retour du front, en 1919, sa mère lui confie la direction de la banque familiale. Le krach boursier mettra fin à ses projets. Son mariage avec Edith Hollànder le sauve du péril financier grâce à la dot conséquente qu'elle lui apporte. Une union de raison. La naissance de Margot, puis d'Anne, comblent Otto et Edith, mais leur bonheur sera de courte durée : la montée du nazisme les contraint à s'exiler. Ils élisent domicile à Amsterdam. Chacun s'adapte aux us et coutumes de ce nouveau pays, jusqu'au jour où Margot, de retour de l'école, annonce à son père qu'elle a été sélectionnée pour les camps de travail. Otto comprend qu'il doit mettre les siens à l'abri : désormais ils vivront cachés dans la fameuse Annexe de ses bureaux. Le 4 août 1944, l'inévitable se produit. Des agents de la Gestapo frappent à leur porte. Otto, Edith, Margot et Anne sont arrêtés et déportés à Auschwitz. Otto sera le seul à revenir vivant des camps de la mort. Anne et Margot succomberont au typhus à Bergen-Belsen, leur mère décédera à Birkenau. Carol Ann Lee signe la première biographie d'Otto Frank. Un document remarquable et bouleversant.

biographie

Otto, père d'Anne Frank

Anne Frank

der Vater von Anne Frank und sein verborgenes Leben

Otto Franks Geheimnis

Anne Frank's 'Diary of a Young Girl' is the most widely read work of non-fiction after the bible. Yet, there has never been an in-depth biography of the teenage writer who perished in the concentration camp of Bergen-Belsen. Here, Carol Ann Lee vividly recreates Anne's short life. Having exclusive access to a number of unpublished documents, she has captured Anne's complex and evolving character.

Carol Ann Lee

Books

Your next favorite book is out there