Beyond the Trenches is a blog based on the life of Joan Leslie, a child performer at the famous Savoy Theatre during World War Two, and her life on the stage since then.
Joan's war experiences include her life as a child living near Birmingham during the Blitz, her memories of Churchill and of Richard Dimbleby reporting from Bergen-Belsen, her family and losses; to her stage-shows as a cast member with the British War Office, working alongside comedy and musical greats such as Stanley Baxter, Arthur English, Antony Bowles, Tony Bones and Alistair McHarg. Her war postings included the East African countries of Nairobi and Kenya, the latter during the Mau Mau uprising; Libya, in the North African coastal city of Tripoli; and the mediteranean country of Malta, North Africa. Joan's War Office postings also extended to the island nation of Cyprus; Yemen, South Arabia at the beginning of the Suez Crisis in Aden and the port city, Crater; and, later, Vietnam, performing for the 'forgotten troops' at the height of the Vietnam war.
Between War Office postings, Joan performed in 'Number One' theatres, including pantomimes directed by such names as Will Hammer and Tibor Rudas. In 1960, she and her then husband, Paul Sharratt, left England for Australia to perform as Snow White in Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, a contract that was to last for six months but, due to popular acclaim, extended to ten years. The show travelled around Australia and New Zealand.
Later, a revised version of the show travelled throughout Asia and, later again, as 'The Midget Revue'. It was during her time with this latter show, that Joan met and married her second husband and spent the next ten years living and working in Kuala Lumpur, before returning to Australia in the seventies, where she still resides.
