Mademoiselle de Montpensier (la Grande Mademoiselle), Louis XIV's first cousin, began working on her memoirs at the age of 25 when she was exiled from Paris following her involvement on the 'wrong' side in the Frondes, the civil wars that threatened for a time to dislodge the young king from his throne. She was an accomplished writer of novels and literary portraits and she also wrote at least one manual of pious Christian behaviour. For a time, she hosted one of the most prominent of the literary salons in the capital; but we remember her best for her colourful life both at court and in exile. The memoirs are well written and provide an informative, outspoken, and, at times, exciting account of the life and times of one of the most active (and richest) women of the seventeenth century.