Family Memories: An Autobiographical Journey

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Open Road Media, Dec 21, 2010 - Biography & Autobiography - 256 pages
Published posthumously, this wise and entertaining family history and memoir offers keen insight into the origins of Rebecca West and her work
 Working on Family Memories for over twenty years, West set out to narrate the story of her mother’s, father’s and husband’s unique and talented families. As in her novels, the richly drawn characters of her heritage and childhood traverse a diverse landscape, from Scotland to Australia to Africa, encountering love, loss, and a panoply of challenges. Although fans will recognize many settings, characters, and themes from her novels, West’s exploration of her family stands on its own as an engaging narrative. Told with her compelling voice, West’s chronicles reflect not only the importance of family to identity, but to the way one relates to the larger world.
 

Contents

ALEXANDER MACKENZIE
THE HOUSEHOLD AT HERIOT
MARY IRONSIDE
JOHNNIE
JOEY
CAPRI
THE HEINEMANNS
PORTLAND BILL
ST KILDA
AN AUSTRALIAN EXPEDITION
CHARLES FAIRFIELD
MR AND MRS FAIRFIELD
STREATHAM PLACE
MY FATHER
RICHMOND HIGH SCHOOL
Copyright

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About the author (2010)

Dame Rebecca West (1892–1983) is one of the most critically acclaimed English novelists, journalists, and literary critics of the twentieth century. Uniquely wide-ranging in subject matter and breathtakingly intelligent in her ability to take on the oldest and knottiest problems of human relations, West was a thoroughly entertaining public intellectual. In her eleven novels, beginning with The Return of the Soldier, she explored topics including feminism, socialism, love, betrayal, and identity. West’s prolific journalistic works include her coverage of the Nuremberg trials for the New Yorker, published as A Train of Powder,and Black Lamb and Grey Falcon, her epic study of Yugoslavia. She had a son with H.G. Wells, and later married banker Henry Maxwell Andrews, continuing to write, and publish, until she died in London at age ninety.

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