Pierrette Henriette Denise Marthe Pernot (20 December 1922 – 25 July 2016), better known professionally as Catherine Arley, was a French novelist and actress. After high school, Catherine Arley joined the National Conservatory of Dramatic Arts of Paris. She played in street theatre and in some films, taking part in the French production of Fleuve étincelant (The Flashing Stream) by Charles Langbridge Morgan. She gave up her acting career after her marriage and at the same time as her first novel, Tu vas mourir, appeared in the 1953 Éditions Denoël collection "Oscar" edited by Marcel Duhamel....
Woman of Straw
A ruthless tycoon, whom his nephew (Anthony "Tony" Richmond) hates as he had both deprived his father of half of the family business and had (after his father had committed suicide) married his mother. A nurse (Maria) from a poor Italian family, is initially hired to care for the tycoon. She initially dislikes him because he abuses his employees. Tony convinces Maria to persist in his employ, however, telling her that he plans to bequeath his entire (fifty million pound) fortune to charity. He plans to help her marry him, then to help him change his will, and (perhaps) then to help her achieve her inheritance, all for a payoff of one million pounds.
