My Disappearing Uncle Europe, War and the Stories of a Scattered Family

by Henderson, Kathy

• ISBN13: 9781803991221
• ISBN10: 1803991224
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2024-02-20
• Publisher: The History Press

Summary

"A fascinating book about a remarkable family." —Edmund de Waal, author ofThe Hare with Amber Eyes

One scattered family and 200 years of European turmoil told through the stories passed down by its undaunted women

'That’s what happens when you listen to the stories and they start to tell themselves all over again … the more you hear, the more questions there are, answers unpeeling like the layers of an onion.’

Memoir, detective work and political history come together in this vivid and moving family biography told through the stories passed down by its undaunted women.

Heard on a toboggan in the Austrian mountains, in the back seat of an overloaded Mini toiling through Europe, on a coal barge in Paris … here are tales that take us from Hungary, Germany and Italy to France, England and Argentina, from the young actress in fin de siècle Vienna to the 16-year-old schoolboy who disappeared for over 50 years. My Disappearing Uncle is a journey of discovery that explores the complicated dance between the present and the past.

Author Biography

Kathy Henderson is an award-winning children’s writer, poet and illustrator with more than 30 published books, winner of the Kurt Maschler Award and the Aesop Prize of the American Folklore Society and shortlisted for the Children’s Poetry Prize. With a background in literature, music and oral history she also compiled 'My Song is My Own, 100 women’s songs from the British Isles', which has become an iconic book on the hidden voices of women. She has written for radio, visited hundreds of schools and libraries and been a Fellow of the Royal Literary Fund.