Irene Handl

Win a bundle of Irene Handl's two novels

Irene Handl is best known as one of the most celebrated female comic actors of the post-war period, with a string of film and television roles remaining celebrated well into the 21st Century.

However, in the 1960s this apparently archetypal Cockney drew on her own, real family background - her mother was of French aristocracy - to publish the first of two novels that confounded and spellbound critics and the public in equal measure: Noel Coward described her writing as "extraordinarily original", and a "touch of genius".

As comedy historian and biographer Graham McCann uncovers this largely-forgotten side-career of the comic favourite in his Comedy Chronicles column, we've got a bundle of both The Sioux and its sequel, The Gold Tip Pfitzer, to give away.

Now long out of print, both novels can be found for sale second-hand, but are really very rare, so these copies - from Graham's own archive - are a wonderful insight into the other talents of a fascinating character.