As LP Hartley so famously put it: "The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there".When I set out to write a book about my two mothers ( my German birthmother and the English one who brought me up) I never quite realized how much research it would entail.
circa 1912, 1954,1983
Here is Betty who appears in the story as Ruth. Then Elizabeth, the 'fortunate child' of the title, who appears as Jane, last Claudia (Julia in the book).
Here is Betty in the garden of her grandparents' house in England -- a privileged child circa 1915.
Garden of the architectural museum, Wroclaw. photo: Elizabeth Wix 1999
My research took me to Wroclaw in Poland, a city which had once been Breslau and a part of Germany until after the Second World War .
How busy the square is --the photo probably taken at the turn of the last century. The older parts of city have been beautifully restored after being almost entirely destroyed in 1945.
Breslau circa 1904
My story is about England and Germany, mothers and daughters, families, and a little about Europe's sad history.
This is Mall House in Faversham, Kent, called Fairleigh Lodge in the book, where some of the story takes place.
The drawing room of Mall House about 1952 --a house I only dimly remember. To me it is a quintessentially English house. Note the Victorian water colors, the loose covers, the flowers and the family photos in pride of place on the mantelpiece.
The book A Fortunate Child is now available as a download on iTunes here. or as real world book here. In both cases you can read the first thirty pages free --by which time you will have some idea if you will enjoy reading the whole thing.
