Illegitimates I Have Slaved For
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My career started in a most peculiar way. My father was doing a Tour of Duty on the Island of Malta during the Second World War. I had just finished high school and had joined the family in Malta for summer holiday. According to Daddy, I was not contributing to the war effort - I was not old enough to be recruited into the services and to put it plainly, I was just the bane of his existence. I was no wilder than any other teenager of that time. Even if I had wanted to be wild, I just couldn't - there was nothing to do and I spent most of my days either horseback riding or swimming. At that time there were terrible air raids in Malta. Upon looking back I realize that it was not terribly unreasonable of my father to want to know where his precious daughter was. One of the troubles was that I detested going down in to air raid shelters. I had developed the habit of watching our planes and enemy planes having terrific air fights in the sky. My holiday did not last very long. Daddy had a friend who had been appointed by the government to establish what came to be known as Victory Kitchens. This friend of Daddy's was asking for volunteers and “My Daddy” suggested my services. I should point out that I did not particularly like this man even though his daughter, Eve was one of my best friends. I used to think that if he had been my father I would have put up myself for adoption.
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About the Book
The private Lillian Rappe talks: about love, sex, food, beauty, fame, work, money, success: about Malta, New York, Michigan - Europe and America: about herself: her young work life in the "Victory kitchens" of war-torn Malta, her move to London, New York and Michigan, good times and bad times in the United States, the explosion of her career from the sixties to the eighties - and the "illegitimate" bosses for whom she labored. Her book illustrates the life of a secretary in the 1960s, 70s and 80s and is at times humorous and at others sad and demoralizing. It is both honest and candid and gives a true life depiction of the plight of the female secretary pre-ERA and women's lib!
About the Author
Lillian Moira Rappe, British by birth, the daughter of a Maltese Ambassador, a painter, international secretary (she speaks 5 languages!), housewife, writer and Manhattan socialite also produced a significant book about her dog Faversham and her fight against dog discrimination in the luxury apartment complexes of Manhattan. Her case was the first won after Mayor Koch passed the NYC dog laws in the early 80's. Equally well known in Art Circles and and the toast of New York Society she spent the last three decades frolicking around Manhattan's tony Gramercy Park - hobnobbing with celebrities and the rich and famous. She is presently living "in divine seclusion" but hopes to return to her beloved New York soon!