The Dictator’s Muse cover art

The Dictator’s Muse

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The Dictator’s Muse

By: Nigel Farndale
Narrated by: Rachel Bavidge
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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

From the best-selling author of The Blasphemer, shortlisted for the Costa Novel Award and a Richard & Judy Bookclub Pick

It is the early 1930s, and Europe is holding its breath. As Hitler's grip on power tightens, preparations are being made for the Berlin Olympics.

Leni Riefenstahl is the pioneering, sexually liberated star film-maker of the Third Reich. She has been chosen by Hitler to capture the Olympics on celluloid but is about to find that even his closest friends have much to fear. Kim Newlands is the English athlete 'sponsored' by the Blackshirts and devoted to his mercurial, socialite girlfriend, Connie. He is driven by a desire to win an Olympic gold, but to do that he must first pretend to be someone he is not. Alun Pryce is the Welsh communist sent to infiltrate the Blackshirts. When he befriends Kim and Connie, his belief that the end justifies the means will be tested to the core.

Through her camera lens and memoirs, Leni is able to manipulate the truth about what happens when their fates collide at the Olympics. But while some scenes from her life end up on the cutting-room floor, this does not mean they are lost forever....

©2021 Nigel Farndale (P)2021 Penguin Audio Fiction Historical Fiction

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The book covers the two women in the life a fictional British athlete. One is his upper class girlfriend, the other is Hitler’s bosom buddy Leni Riefenstahl. What I liked about the book was the section in which another character lays bare the lies that LR told after the war to get off criminal charges of complicity with the Nazi party. It also raises the issue of whether LR believed her own lies but sort of lets her off the hook because she was ‘complicated’. What she was was a fascist who played dumb and denied knowing anything about things she must have known. The other two main characters, for whom we’re supposed to feel some sympathy are British black shirts so, ummm, no!

An interesting but difficult story

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It was a good listen. Sometimes the voices were a bit over the top but I think that’s ok.

Very insightful

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