Darius Milhaud was a member of 'Les Six', that highly prominent and fashionable group of Parisian composers of the 1920s. The Milhauds played an active part in the musical, cultural and social life of Paris at that time and later, numbering Cocteau, Dufy, Diaghilev, Satie, Stravinsky and Ravel among their friends.In Milhaud's own autobiography, My Happy Life, the references to Madeleine were tender but few. In these conversations she views the same life of interest and contentment 'from the distaff side'. Madeleine knew Milhaud from her childhood - they were cousins - and she was at his side through most of his adventures, triumphs and traumas, including the agonising bouts of arthritis from which Milhaud suffered. Madeleine herself had a successful career as an actress and reciter and in these conversations with Roger Nicholls she reveals as a highly spirited and determined woman in her own right.