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

Memoir, detective work and political history come together in this family biography which springs from a collection of stories passed down by word of mouth. Told on a toboggan in the Austrian mountains, in the back seat of an overloaded mini, on a coal barge in Paris, folding linen in London... they range from Hungary to Austria, Italy, France, England and South America. These were the tales that shaped our lives and understanding as we grew up, and brought us the adventures of the women who went before us – and the link to a scattered family and 200 years of European turmoil. Rich with the experience of several generations of women, this is the history that so rarely reaches the official record. This is where our story, their stories and history meet. AUTHOR: Kathy Henderson is an award-winning children's writer, poet and illustrator with more than 30 published books, winner among other things of the Kurt Maschler Award, 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 the 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.

About the Author :
KATHY HENDERSON is an award-winning children’s writer, poet and illustrator with more than 30 published books, winner among other things of the Kurt Maschler Award, 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 the 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.

Review :
‘A compulsive tangle of tales touching not only on lives, loves and the longing to belong, but also the brutality of war and injustice suffered again and yet again in Europe up to the present day.’ ‘An astonishing book, beautifully written. Echoes of a middle-European Forsyte Saga later colliding with the brutal realities of Nazism, and what came next.’ ‘Kathy Henderson has a rare ability to draw us into her immediate family and then reverse the telescope to take in the cultural and political canvas imploding into world wars, Holocaust and diaspora … Her writing is beautiful and captivating and we are carried along in her unfolding discoveries …’ ‘Kathy has peeled away the layers of her family history to reveal not only a fascinating narrative but the way in which chance encounters enrich our lives.’ ‘She fits these tales into a gripping … historical narrative for her own better understanding of what occurred … to allow us, her readers, a deeper insight into the complex history of central Europe through the 20th Century, its two world wars and beyond.’ ‘Henderson has that rare quality of being able to draw the reader into her world, offering them a rich and cultural experience along the way.’ ‘an evocative account of a childhood in a postwar London.’