Virginia Woolf wrote of the Invisible Presences that contribute to making us what we are; people who are no longer with us but whose contribution to our understanding of the world and our place in it is incalculable. There are other more tangible factors though that form us, people we have met, places where we have been, events that make up the way we see ourselves. These are presumably most influential during our formative years, childhood and young adulthood.

This book has been written both for the author’s Swedish children and grandchildren whose early lives and ­upbringing have been so unlike hers and for relatives in Great ­Britain who are curious about family history. This voyage of discovery uses memory as well as documentation to recreate the experience of growing up in a specific family in the social and cultural context of the time. Before the author started a new life in a new context: before Sweden.