Anna Sparre (1906–1993)

Countess Anna Sparre was born Anna Eva Elisabet Adelswärd to an aristocratic family in Stockholm, Sweden. Her parents were Baron Theodor Adelswärd, a member of the Swedish Parliament, and his wife Louise Douglas, a writer. In 1927, she married Count Clas Sparre, an engineer and aviator with whom she had a daughter. Their marriage ended in divorce. She wrote numerous historical novels and biographical works, including Astrid, My Friend (1985), a memoir of her close friendship with Queen Astrid of the Belgians, born a Swedish princess. During World War II, she joining the Swedish army's women's auxiliary forces and become chief of propaganda. After the war, she remarried to Arne Moe-Larsen, a dentist, and lived with him in Denmark. In the 1950s, after this marriage ended, she returned to live in Sweden.