A WOMAN from Great Bardfield celebrated the launch of her autobiography with more than 120 guests last Saturday. Ariel Crittall, 94, who lives on Park Hall, unveiled her book My Life: Smilingly Unravelled at Braintree Museum. The work chronicles the remar

A WOMAN from Great Bardfield celebrated the launch of her autobiography with more than 120 guests last Saturday.

Ariel Crittall, 94, who lives on Park Hall, unveiled her book My Life: Smilingly Unravelled at Braintree Museum.

The work chronicles the remarkable life of Ariel from her meeting with Adolf Hitler as an 18-year-old in 1933 to her marriage to John Crittall, former boss of the Crittall Manufacturing Company.

A spokesman for the museum, where the book is on sale, said: "It's been selling ever so well and we send a lot of copies out by post. As you would expect there's a lot of interest from former employees of John Crittall."

Mrs Crittall's memories span almost a century of family and world history, reflecting social and political change and development, the history of the Crittall company, and her own significant involvement in local education, healthcare, conservation and the arts.

Half of the proceeds of the book will go to the Manor Street museum where she was a trustee. Mrs Crittall said: "I think it's an excellent little museum and I was tremendously privileged to be a trustee all that time. I wanted to do anything I could to show my gratitude."

The book cost �12. Order your copy by calling the museum on 01376 325266