For the first time in English, the sensational memoirs of Josephine Baker – cabaret star, activist and spy

‘Who else could ever have had a story like hers?” writes Ijeoma Oluo in the foreword to Josephine Baker’s memoir. “The dancer, the singer, the ingenue, the scandal maker, the activist, the spy – Josephine Baker lived at least 10 lives in one.” Translated gorgeously into English for the first time by Anam Zafar and Sophie Lewis, Fearless and Free comprises stories and reflections in Baker’s own voice, drawn from conversations with the French writer Marcel Sauvage that began in 1926 and continued for more than 20 years afterwards. They cover her early life in St Louis, her adventures in Europe and eventual transformation into, as Sauvage puts it, an “actress and French citizen of worldwide renown”.

Memoirs that span a lifetime can lack narrative drive. “Life, when you think about it later,” says Baker, “is a series of images … a film in your heart.” And yet Baker’s matchless character propels the reader. She exudes love and life on the page. And that voice! Her younger one, bright, witty, effervescent, and her older one, wiser, angrier, and still so funny.