Hellcat of The Hague
The Nel Slis Story
by Caroline Studdert
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Pub Date 1 Jun 2022 | Archive Date 5 Jul 2022
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Description
At a time when women were finding their voices comes Hell Cat of the Hague: The Nel Slis Story, the remarkable tale of a female journalist who became the Associated Press’ first correspondent in The Hague after WWII. This story delves into the origins and follows the adventures of a larger-than-life character, fighting her way to make her mark in the world as a lone woman journalist and forming enduring friendships across the world.
From a lonely childhood on an island at the bottom of Holland, a love of languages launches Nel on her travels in the 1930s. From the Sorbonne and White Russians in Paris to a top-class nursing diploma in Switzerland, from the U.K. and Germany to Mussolini-watching in Rome as World War II breaks out, Nel sees it all. With her experience in nursing and the BBC wartime intelligence monitoring service, Nel falls ‘like a hair in the soup’ into journalism when the mighty Associated Press (AP) sets up shop in the UK. Postwar, Nel becomes the AP’s first correspondent in The Hague – and meets the love of her life, young American journalist Daniel Schorr. Together with Schorr, her direct and challenging American style of reporting transforms a profession suffering from the legacy of wartime occupation. The book also follows her reporting on the Dutch Royal Family, Nel and the Queen of Libya, her travels and work in the U.S. and much more. She becomes a legend in her own time, the exciting woman journalist every other journalist wants to interview and emulate. Also famed for her warmth, her wide circle of friends including cultural icons like Isaac Stern and Leo Bernstein, and her support for new journalists, especially women, this is a figure history should celebrate as this book surely does.
A Note From the Publisher
Marketing Plan
The inspiring true story of Nel Slis, the woman who became the Associated Press’ first correspondent in The Hague after WWII (2nd edition)
Author is a journalist who interweaves Nel's words and writings with her own and Nel's contemporaries' insights
Available Editions
| EDITION | Ebook |
| ISBN | 9781803139647 |
| PRICE | £5.99 (GBP) |
| PAGES | 304 |
Featured Reviews
Mike H, Reviewer
Hellcat of the Hague By Caroline Studdert
I enjoy reading books by or about journalists from the 1920’s on through the 1960’s. These includes books mostly about Americans who just out of school move to Asia or Europe and end up playing an important part in writing the 1st draft of History. The most recent book I have read like this is Deborah Cohen’s, Last Call at the Hotel Imperial. One of the five journalist in this book is Dorothy Thompson who interviews both Hitler and Mussolini and rose to a level of popularity just below Eleanor Roosevelt. A second book is Wise Gals by Nathalia Holt which describes the careers of the first five women in the OSS and the CIA and how they rose from very low levels to senior levels in the CIA. So, I was looking forward to reading this book about a woman; Nel Slis who I did not know. By the way just to make clear, I am a male. On many levels this book is an excellent read but let me first explain my disappointments.
I thought Ms. Studdert over emphasized her sex life or lack of. Reading along she mentions that Nel has marriage proposals by many a man. And the one man she professes to love is Daniel Schorr. I looked through the index of Staying Tuned by Mr. Schorr. Though he writes of Brussels and The Hague, Nel Slis is not in the Index! A second point is related to being a journalist for a Wire Service. I had never thought about the difference compared to writing for a single paper before but I would have liked to have had Ms. Studdert explain the differences. I am not sure but given the subscribing papers choose articles not commissioned to their own staff, do they expect to do little or no grammar checking? Are they looking for an occasional story of note from a region that generally has little appeal to their readers? And may this have been a reason for the slower rise of Nel through the AP system besides her being a woman in a man’s career world ? Lastly, it is not clear to me that Brussels or The Hague were compelling news locations for most papers looking for stories in St. Louis or Singapore.
What I did enjoy even before seeing the photographs was the impression of Nel Slis from Ms. Studdert’s description of a well- dressed, small in stature but feisty character. She certainly looked the part when I saw the photographs. And very similar to the book I mentioned about the women in the CIA, Ms. Slis had to “out prepare” and ask the tough questions which she certainly did. Finally, like many people who put their entire life into their work when it ends there seems little left. This is a sad ending to Ms. Slis’s career.
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