vanessarama

So we all know my fascination with unidentified and missing people, yes? On Kindle for iPad I bought a fascinating book about one of the most famous "unidentified person" mysteries of them all: The Resurrection of the Romanovs: Anastasia, Anna Anderson and the World's Greatest Royal Mystery.

I can date my fascination with the Anastasia/Anna Anderson mystery back to Year 10 when I read my history teacher's copy of The File on the Tsar, and I continued to read up on it over the years. Like a lot of people, I was so convinced by the massive amount of apparent evidence for Anderson being Anastasia that I was utterly blown away by the DNA evidence proving that she wasn't. It seemed as if there was no way an imposter could be that lucky.

The wonderful thing about The Resurrection of the Romanovs is that the authors freely admit they were fooled too :) The book is an investigation of why and how we were all fooled, and it's very thorough and fascinating. It turns out much of the 'evidence' was misreported or falsified and the errors repeated throughout the decades. Most fascinating of all, the authors have actually investigated Franzisca Schankowska, the woman who almost certainly was 'Anna Anderson', and have shown convincingly how her journey progressed from an attempt to get a few extra treats and favours for herself in the asylum she was confined in, to a massive international deception which she kept up for the rest of her life. They even identify the probablu defining moment at which she decided to actively pursue the deception. It's a fascinating read.

"In the old brown house on the corner, a mile from the middle of the city, we ate bacon for breakfast every morning of our lives."

That's the first line of Monkey Grip by Helen Garner, and I have always found it a wonderful opening line. I've been rereading it on and off this week, and falling in love with the intimacy and unpretentiousness and humanity of her writing all over again. It was the first adult fiction I'd ever read which was set in my own city so that I recognised the places and attitudes. It must be even more interesting for my ex-boss, who knows Helen and is related to some of the people upon whom her characters are based..