While High was a teenager, her mother worked in the PR department of Columbia films and as an agent for the Alain Bernheim Literary Agency.

[1] Monique’s father, film executive David Raphel, is the son of Baroness Sonia (Sofia Sara) de Gunzburg, and grandson of Baron David de Günzburg, whose family was ennobled by Tsar Alexander II and is considered among the most notable Jewish dynasties in the world.

This library, full of rare books and manuscripts dating back to the Middle Ages, was seized in 1917 by the Bolsheviks, and is now exhibited in Russia by the government of Vladimir Putin.

[3] High married Los Angeles criminal defense attorney Ben Walter Pesta, II, in 1987.

[4][5][6] High lived in Westwood, California and was working on her newest novel, a courtroom drama, when she died on March 12, 2017, after a period of illness.