Thursday, March 24, 2011 5:26 PM
When Press 53 sent us Deane's memoir, we did a double take. In 1956 Deane walked away from a recording contract and t.v. appearances to travel the world. She played her unique blend of jazz and classical music across 67 countries. She lived in Pakistan, Nepal, India, South Africa and many other places. The first woman to drive a Land Rover from London to Kathmandu, she also managed a Red Cross clinic for Tibetan refugees, was kidnapped by Turkish police and was offered a job by the CIA. Her story is beyond remarkable and her memoir of it, "An Unreasonable Woman," is incredibly well written. You will, as we did, lose yourself entirely in the story of a woman who has lived life according to her own rules. In a time when Greg Mortenson and Elizabeth Gilbert rule the memoir charts, Shirley Deane makes them look like amateurs.
