If you were a superheroine, which one would you be?

Eleanor Roosevelt - “a distinguished U.S. public figure who worked tirelessly for social justice.”

Loved Halle Berry’s Catwoman hair cut. In fact, that’s how I wear my hair now.

Jack Nicholson…seriously

Why can’t we British women over 40 have something like this that is UK-centric? How about you women of massive influence get some of your high profile Brit chums together and galvanise them into creating wowowowuk.com?? Great - at last somewhere to communicate with amusing, intelligent women who don’t feel they have to pretend - about anything! For we Brits I think there would have to be a spiritual element also, don’t know what happens when you reach 40 - maybe all this rain finally gets to us! - but happen it does and we start seeking. So please fill the gap - there’s a huge demand from this tiny island. Thanks! Sarah

I’ve had two superheroines since I was ten years old. Nothing was impossible to Saint Joan of Arc or Jackie Kennedy.

Seventeen year old country girl, Joan of Arc, saved dying France when no one else could. She turned The Hundred Year War around in 8 days. Mark Twain’s favorite among his books was, “Personal Recollections of Saint Joan of Arc”…he said she was the most outstanding human being that ever lived. Napoleon, Charles de Gaulle, and Churchill all studied her. Because of her Trials and “Rehabilitation” we have a complete record of her life taken under oath including in her own powerfully intelligent, witty and strategic words.

Paraphrasing from Mark Twain’s “Essay”….There is no one else in world history who approaches Joan of Arc…she was born with military genius, leonine courage, incomparable fortitude, with the lawyer’s gift of detecting…the orator’s gift of eloquence, the advocate’s gift of presenting a case…the statesman’s gift of making profitable use of political opportunities.

She was a beautiful, simple, lovable, gentle character…called “The Beautiful” as a child. She had a beguiling voice and proved more wily and articulate than hundreds of learned men arrayed against her. And despite coming from a brutal, dark era, she “…gave her great mind to great thoughts and great purposes when other minds wasted themselves on fancies and poor ambitions; that she was modest and fine when to be loud and coarse was said to be universal; she was full of pity, when a merciless cruelty was the rule; and steadfast and honorable, courageous and hopeful when all had been forgotten in her land.”

40% of our language comes from the French, their word for heart—coeur—is the root of our word for courage. And so I called my novel “French Heart” because that unstoppable spirit of Jackie and Saint Joan is harnessed by the characters in a “…wickedly funny romance that takes readers on a heart-pounding roller-coaster ride through glamorous settings in France, Italy, California and New York as a former CIA-agent and her cohorts battle global racketeers and discover the secret to love, riches and environmental transformation.”

Joan of Arc saved her nation and with that same sensibility, Jackie, illuminated ours and lit a light at the top of the world.

After only four months as First Lady, she and JFK went to Paris on their first official state visit. Charles de Gualle declared a state holiday. Two million citizen were out in the streets waving American flags and screaming, “Viva L’Amérique” “Viva Jacqui!” The International press declared the visit Jackie’s apotheosis. Jackie’s heritage was French, she’d taken her junior year at the Sorbonne, she spoke fluent French, and was greeted as a returning daughter.

As de Gaulle said, she gave America grandeur and she showed the whole world how to behave.

Saint Joan and Jackie are two among the list of the 100 most influential women in history. I love them for their valiance, sense of duty and purpose, and stunning individuality. As Jackie described herself, “Above all I am FIRST a woman.”

They have so enriched my entire life, and I am gratified to repay that a bit by making them the symbols of that unstoppable ‘French Heart’ in my book.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jcsrpkEHUEk