Juliette Benzoni

Juliette Benzoni (born Andrée-Marguerite-Juliette Mangin; 30 October 1920 – 7 February 2016) was a French author and international bestseller in several genres, including historical romance, historical fiction, mystery and screenwriting. In 1998, at the age of 78, she received the Chevalier de l'Ordre National (National Order of Merit) from President Jacques Chirac.

Known as the "Queen of History Novels" and "Daughter of Alexander Dumas", she wrote 86 books, which were translated into at least 22 languages.

She was born Andrée-Marguerite-Juliette Mangin, the daughter of Marie-Susanne Arnold (of Alsace and Swiss origin) and Charles-Hubert Mangin. She grew up in an upper-middle-class family in Paris. At the age of nine she discovered her passion for history through reading a book about Joan of Arc, and her father encouraged her to read the books of Alexander Dumas by giving her a copy of The Three Musketeers.

Benzoni was educated at the Lycée Fénelon, College d'Hulst and the Institut Catholique de Paris, where she studied philosophy, law and literature.

She married a doctor, Maurice Gallois in 1941, and they moved to Dijon where she became the mother of two children. While studying the history of Burgundy she discovered the Order of the Golden Fleece, which was later to inspire the seven Catherine novels. In 1950 her husband died of a heart attack, leaving her a widow at the age of 30 with two young children. She went to Morocco to visit her late husband's parents and found work at a radio station writing advertisements.

In Morocco she met a young French officer, Count André Benzoni di Conza from Corsica, and they married a few weeks before he was assigned to leave for Indochina to rejoin his regiment. Because of the unstable situation in Morocco, her husband wanted her to return to France, so in 1953 she went to live in the Parisian suburb of Saint-Mandé, where later her husband would become deputy mayor. Times were hard and she had to look for work, so she began employment as a journalist and author.

In 1982 her husband André Benzoni died, making her a widow for the second time. In January 1985 her son Jean-François Gallois died of a heart-attack, just like his father Maurice. It was the only time the author suffered from writer's block, while working on the first adventures of Le boiteux de Varsovie.

She lived in a Second Empire mansion with her daughter Anne Gallois, and went for long walks with her dog in the Bois de Vincennes, visiting her favourite library "Monaco" in Saint-Mandé. Her house was full of books from the cellar up to the first floor – not only literary encyclopaedias, history books, and travel guides but also collections of works by Agatha Christie, Anne Perry and Ken Follett. She travelled widely, and enjoyed gardening and cooking for her family and guests. ...

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