Invisible Ink 'beautifully written, superbly researched and deeply moving ... You won't be able to put it down'. David Herman, Jewish Chronicle January 28th 2021
Martha Leigh presents a memoir drawn from the large archive of her Jewish family from all over Europe in the twentieth century. “My mother, who died when I was 18, had been very economical with the truth as she had wanted to shield me from the horrors of WWII. However, when she was dying, she told me in instalments about her miraculous escape from the Nazis and some of her experiences as a refugee in Switzerland. I also found out that whilst working for the French Resistance and later the Free French, my uncle saved the lives of many people including my cousin, my mother and his own mother, whom he smuggled out of the Soviet Union.” She continues: “My father left a large archive of poems, short stories, a play, diaries, notebooks, intimate letters and an astonishingly frank novel. I think he enjoyed the prospect of his children sorting through his personal documents. With his characteristic wicked humour, he also left us a sheet of paper, blank apart from the heading, ‘This page is written in invisible ink.’” The book also shows the author’s own journey as she uncovers the family history which was to shape her life. “As soon as I retired”, she said “I seized my pen”. Read the foreword to the book here. listen to ashort clip from audio book.
