title: The Secret Life of a Schoolgirl: A Memoir
author:  Rosemary Kingsland 
description: Kingsland's delightfully lusty memoir of her girlhood in Cornwall and London is writ around a secret she has kept for more than 40 years and had noted only in her diaries: in 1955, at 14, she lost her virginity to her first crush, legendary English actor Richard Burton, whom she had met by happenstance one night after having seen him in Dylan Thomas's Under Milk Wood with her father some months before. The book begins in an awkward rush but soon slips into a languid, lush pacing full of intricate detail. Kingsland's father had been in the regiment in India, where he met and married her mother, who was born in India of English parents. Their life was that of the Raj era: servants, ayahs, bearers. Then Partition forced them to flee to the grim, gray world of Cornwall, where Kingsland's angry and self-absorbed father spent his time womanizing and writing bad poetry, and her sad mother turned agoraphobic until she won a huge sum in the football pools, which allowed the family to move to London. Kingsland writes evocatively of her sexual coming-of-age without false romanticism (though she was wildly in love with Burton while he was infatuated with her precocious youth) and writes of the actor with a verve and insight that renews his appeal for those who might have forgotten the bedroom eyes and deep Welsh voice that made him a star. This memoir is vivid, charming and beautifully wrought, capturing both the isolated country world of Cornwall and the provocative urbanity of post-WWII London, and the subtle transition from girlhood to womanhood. <br />Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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  ### The Hidden Princess
  
  
  
  
  
  Copyright © 2015 by U. Mandy Carrico
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  BKC Publishing
  
  
  
  
  
  First Edition
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this
  publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval
  system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical,
  photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of
  the above author of this book.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either
  the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ### Dedication
  
  
  
  
  
  For my high school English teacher, Mr. Kearns.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  You may not remember me among the hundreds upon hundreds of students you’ve
  taught over the years but I remember you. Every student should experience
  someone like you at least once in their education.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  