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About twenty-five years ago I worked in Madame Tussaud's in London. I stopped people from touching the wax models and also made a nuisance of myself keeping very still and frightening tourists. When I was there I first learnt the history of Marie Tussaud and couldn't believe how extraordinary her life had been, and how amazing it was that she not only escaped France and the Revolution alive but that she became a brilliantly successful business woman. I stood beside the wax works she made for hours on end, it felt somehow like a way of getting to know her. Her story is one of those tales about history happening to other people, the little people caught up in it...she was a foreigner too, a Swiss, and the Swiss were despised by the French after the Swiss Guard fired on a crowd of protesting civilians. Being Swiss at that time was almost a crime.
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