Virginia McKenna

Virginia McKenna O.B.E. was born June 7, 1931 in London. She is a British stage and screen actress, author and wildlife campaigner.

Virginia trained as an actress at the Central School of Speech and Drama then worked on stage in London's West End theatres before making her motion picture debut in 1952. She married actor Bill Travers in 1957 with whom she remained until his death in 1994.

In 1956, McKenna won the BAFTA Award for Best Actress for her performance in the film, A Town Like Alice and two years later was nominated for Best Actress again for her role the WW II SOE agent Violette Szabo in 1958's Carve Her Name with Pride. However, McKenna is best remembered for her 1966 role as Joy Adamson in the true-life film Born Free for which she received a nomination for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress. Her husband co-starred with her and the experience led them to become active supporters for wild animal rights and protecting their natural habitat. This led to McKenna and her husband becoming involved in the Zoo Check Campaign in 1984 and to their establishing the Born Free Foundation in 1991.

On the stage, in 1979 she won the Olivier Award for Best Actress in a British musical for her performance opposite Yul Brynner in The King and I. Over the years she appeared in more motion pictures but also was very active with television roles and on stage where she continues to make occasional appearances.

For her services to wildlife and to the arts, in 2004 Virginia McKenna was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire.

The Years in my Life
Virginia McKenna starred in some of the most popular and enduring movies of our time, among them Carve Her Name With Pride, A Town Like Alice and Born Free, in which she played opposite her husband, Bill Travers. After Born Free both actors were at the peak of their careers but the film and all it still stands for changed their lives. Its powerful message stayed with them and so began a worldwide campaign to save animals from commercial exploitation, "imprisonment" in zoos and loss of their natural habitat.

At the heart of this book is a cry for change in attitude - to respect nature and all that it provides. Virginia McKenna has pushed aside the glamour of movie stardom, the West End and Broadway where she starred in major shows like The King and I and A Little Night Music. Instead she focuses relentlessly on her personal mission with the Born Free Foundation or the plight of orphaned children across the world.

Through the prism of memory a lifetime of experiences, ecstatic, amusing or tragic have flooded back in the form of anecdotes, meditations and poems to form this book.
This book will inspire anyone who cares about the future of the planet and all the creatures dependent on it, including human beings.

Part of the proceeds from each book sold will go to support Born Free Foundation campaigns.

Watch video clip of Virginia McKenna on The Book Show >>

If you want to read the first chapter of , visit LoveReading.co.uk.