Author, author! You see her byline regularly in British Heritage; now meet Sandra Lawrence, in her own words.(Brief article).

WRITING CAME LATE in life for me--I was convinced I was destined to be a legendary actress. I spent five years discovering that I was great at getting acting jobs, less great at doing them. I could do musicals though, so after playing LaVerne in a show about the Andrews Sisters, I hooked up with the other two girls and we traveled around the world with big-band leader Ray McVay.

Later, I joined the French Glenn Miller Orchestra as a soloist and spent seven years touring pretty much every Gallic town that has a green box on the Michelin Map. At home, between tours, I started my own nine-piece swing band, The Vendettas, and joined the semi-legendary Sugar Ray Ford's outfit, The Flying Fortress. One of the albums I made, Noiresque--with the Vendettas--led to a fun one-woman show in London about Film Noir's femmes fatales.

It was while I was touring France that I discovered journalism, writing mainly for newspapers. I enjoyed it hugely (especially the daily column about life on the band-bus for the Independent), and though I still occasionally sing, writing has gradually taken over. I've managed to wheedle my way into all the broadsheets and a couple of dozen magazines at some point or another, but writing about my hometown, London, for British Heritage is a favorite. I try not to favor Greenwich, my own neck of the woods, too much, even if it is a personal passion. I'm usually accompanied on my jaunts by my partner, Tony, though our rather fat (and grumpy) cat Callisto refuses to leave pole-position by the fire.

Source Citation
Lawrence, Sandra. "Author, author! You see her byline regularly in British Heritage; now meet Sandra Lawrence, in her own words." British Heritage Jan. 2010: 65. Academic OneFile. Web. 19 Nov. 2009. .

Gale Document Number:A212032878