Wendy Holden – författare

En episk berättelse om drottning Elizabeths barndom och kvinnan som fostrade henne.  

LONDON 1933. Tjugotvååriga Marion Crawford har rest från Skottland för att bli guvernant åt de små prinsessorna Elizabeth och Margaret Rose. Det enda kravet hon har på deras föräldrar, Hertigen och Hertiginnan av York, är att hon ska få tillåtelse att införa en aning normalitet i flickornas skyddade och privilegierade tillvaro.

Marion trotsar de gammalmodiga etikettsreglerna genom att ta med prinsessorna på tunnelbaneresor, till offentliga simbassänger och på shoppingturer på Woolworths. Från sin position i kungafamiljens absoluta centrum blir hon vittne till nittonhundratalets stora händelser: Edvard VIII:s abdikation, den glamourösa kröningen av Elizabeth II och andra världskrigets början. Hon lotsar de kungliga flickorna genom allt detta, lika nära som en mor.

Men Marion Crawford får göra stora uppoffringar som familjen Windsors nära förtrogna. Äktenskap, barn, egna åsikter allt får hon offra i skuggan av den kungliga glansen. Men kommer det att räcka för att behålla kungafamiljens tillgivenhet när allt rasar?  

Med inspiration från verkliga händelser och oräkneliga källor har Wendy Holden skrivit en episk roman om kärlek, försakelser och lojalitet.

Boken är välskriven och lättläst med ett språk som flyter fint. En episk, historisk och spännande roman om kärlek och dramatik, lojalitet och försakelser och kungligheter förstås. Helhetsbetyg: 4, Mycket bra,  Bibliotekstjänst 

The Nazis murdered their husbands but concentration camp prisoners Priska, Rachel, and Anka would not let evil take their unborn children too—a remarkable true story that will appeal to readers of The Lost and The Nazi Officer’s Wife, Born Survivors celebrates three mothers who defied death to give their children life.

Eastern Europe, 1944: Three women believe they are pregnant, but are torn from their husbands before they can be certain. Rachel is sent to Auschwitz, unaware that her husband has been shot. Priska and her husband travel there together, but are immediately separated. Also at Auschwitz, Anka hopes in vain to be reunited with her husband. With the rest of their families gassed, these young wives are determined to hold on to all they have left—their lives, and those of their unborn babies. Having concealed their condition from infamous Nazi doctor Josef Mengele, they are forced to work and almost starved to death, living in daily fear of their pregnancies being detected by the SS.

In April 1945, as the Allies close in, Priska gives birth. She and her baby, along with Anka, Rachel, and the remaining inmates, are sent to Mauthausen concentration camp on a hellish seventeen-day train journey. Rachel gives birth on the train, and Anka at the camp gates. All believe they will die, but then a miracle occurs. The gas chamber runs out of Zyklon-B, and as the Allied troops near, the SS flee. Against all odds, the three mothers and their newborns survive their treacherous journey to freedom.

On the seventieth anniversary of Mauthausen’s liberation from the Nazis by American soldiers, renowned biographer Wendy Holden recounts this extraordinary story of three children united by their mothers’ unbelievable—yet ultimately successful—fight for survival.

''This is a remarkable book . . . Read it and use it: you may find you are doing nothing less than giving back to your children their childhood, while they still have the chance to live it'' Mark Williams, Director, University of Oxford Mindfulness Centre and author of Mindfulness: Finding peace in a frantic world''10 Mindful Minutes can help any adult - parent, grandparent, teacher - make double use of their moments with the children they love and have a terrific time while helping shape that child''s brain for a lifetime of resilience and happiness'' Daniel Goleman, author of Emotional IntelligenceBestselling author Goldie Hawn offers parents a practical guide for helping their children to learn better and live more happily. Based on the MindUP programme, supported by the Hawn Foundation, 10 Mindful Minutes outlines short, practical exercises for parents and children - taking less than 10 minutes - to help young children and teenagers reduce stress and anxiety, improve concentration and academic performance, effectively manage emotions and behaviour, develop greater empathy for others and the world, and be more optimistic and happy. Representing the culmination of years of research and programmes developed by the Hawn Foundation currently being used by schools internationally, this book will help children and parents develop mindfulness which has been proven to promote more effective learning and happier lives.

The Sunday Times bestseller now updated with a new forewordAmong millions of Holocaust victims sent to Auschwitz II-Birkenau in 1944, Priska, Rachel, and Anka each passed through its infamous gates with a secret. Strangers to each other, they were newly pregnant, and facing an uncertain fate without their husbands. Alone, scared, and with so many loved ones already lost to the Nazis, these young women were privately determined to hold on to all they had left: their lives, and those of their unborn babies.That the gas chambers ran out of Zyklon-B just after the babies were born, before they and their mothers could be exterminated, is just one of several miracles that allowed them all to survive and rebuild their lives after World War II. Born Survivors follows the mothers'' incredible journey - first to Auschwitz, where they each came under the murderous scrutiny of Dr. Josef Mengele; then to a German slave labour camp where, half-starved and almost worked to death, they struggled to conceal their condition; and finally, as the Allies closed in, their hellish 17-day train journey with thousands of other prisoners to the Mauthausen death camp in Austria. Hundreds died along the way but the courage and kindness of strangers, including guards and civilians, helped save these women and their children.Sixty-five years later, the three ''miracle babies'' met for the first time at Mauthausen for the anniversary of the liberation that ultimately saved them. United by their remarkable experiences of survival against all odds, they now consider each other "siblings of the heart." In Born Survivors, Wendy Holden brings all three stories together for the first time to mark their seventieth birthdays and the seventieth anniversary of the ending of the war.A heart-stopping account of how three mothers and their newborns fought to survive the Holocaust, Born Survivors is also a life-affirming celebration of our capacity to care and to love amid inconceivable cruelty.

This story poses a profound question - do we accept the hand that fate deals us, or do we battle to make the most of the life we have and help others in the process? Chris Graham, just 38 years old but already facing the advanced stages of Alzheimer''s disease, has emphatically chosen the latter.Having lived through a troubled childhood, Chris joined the British Army at a young age and found that the life of a soldier provided him with a much-needed sense of stability. However, his world was turned upside down when, at just 34 years of age, he was diagnosed with a form of early onset dementia. This brutal disease had already claimed the life of his father at 42, along with several other members of his family, and tragically had already confined his brother to a nursing home at the age of 43. In his brother''s life, Chris could see a terrifying window into his own near future.Chris, though, is an extraordinary human being. Having been handed nothing less than a death sentence, he decided overnight to stand up to this horrendous disease and do something to leave his mark before it was too late. And so it was that last year, Chris embarked on an awareness-raising 16,000-mile solo cycle around North America, armed only with his bike, a sense of humour, and some good old-fashioned British grit. Leaving his ever-supportive wife Vicky and baby son Dexter at home, he took on huge challenges - for instance, the fear that the ability to discern left from right might leave him at any point while navigating an entire continent - and made it home in time for Christmas, determined to spending however long he has left pouring his love and attention into his family life. Five Minutes of Amazing is both the story of Chris'' epic journey and of his fight against the disease increasingly being recognised as the defining disease of our generation. Inspiring and heart-rending in equal measure, it''s as important as it is moving, and it will touch everyone who reads it.