I believe my maternal grandparents, Olga and Paul Woronoff, never saw the revolution coming, and they certainly didn’t think the turmoil, violence and bloodshed would last. Coming closely on the heels of World War I, it must have been a time of such uncertainty but even so, in their minds,
My grandmother, Countess Olga Kleinmichel; my mother, Tatiana Woronoff; and me, Alexandra de Fircks, all around the same age, although as only my mother’s photo and mine have dates, I can’t be exact but I guesstimate my grandmother was also around 6 or 7 when her photo was taken. Clockwise:
What inspired you to revisit and revise your grandmother’s memoir for a second edition? That was a question I was asked during the book launch for the 2nd edition of Upheaval and a question which I’m often asked by both friends and contacts on social media. I never envisaged revisiting
Ever since I started researching my ancestors I’ve wanted to ask them questions. Why did my maternal grandparents leave the vineyard in France? Why did my father’s sister move to Peru? Why did my paternal grandfather study iridology? There is so much I wish I knew about the decisions they
It was the best book launch I’ve ever had – ok, it was the first book launch I’ve had but it really did go well. Having the book launch online was the best decision as we were joined by people from different areas of Australia as well as different countries
Booth Tarkington, who twice won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, in 1919 and 1922, wrote the Introduction to the original edition of my grandmother’s memoir, Upheaval. Upheaval was originally published in 1932, some four years after my grandparents migrated to America. I often wondered how it was that my grandmother