An Unintended Life: Memoir of a WW2 Generation Woman

2001 blue softcover in very good condition; some wear to covers, good binding, no marks inside. US media mail only for shipping.
This is a true story of a woman's life through seven decades of the 20th century. It is an account of how this woman grows, not only through all the chapters of her own life experience, but also in responding to the many social changes of this rapidly transforming century. Born and raised in Britain during an era of female dependency, the author journeys to an affirmation of independence and self reliance. As an adolescent, she experiences life in war torn Britain and how a nation came together to face the threats of WWII. As a young adult, she describes her role, as Petty Officer, in the Women's Royal Naval Service (WRNS).

After the national pulling together in wartime, adjusting to peacetime conditions in a changed and fast changing world was not easy. It took time, and several wrong turnings, before this woman began to find out who she was. Eventually, she was drawn to working in theater and then with The Royal Ballet at Covent Garden. During this time, she experienced the first visit out of the USSR of the Bolshoi Ballet Company, which occurred in 1956, just when the USSR invaded Hungary. The effect of this on the Bolshoi Company in London was dramatic and was a glimpse of totalitarian life. At that time, the author also participated in local political activities and met some politicians, at a young age, one of whom later became a somewhat publicized Member of Parliament. Soon after that, on a sailing boat vacation along the coast of Northern France, she met a rollicking English adventurer, on his way in his own sailing boat to Tangier, where he would buy and sell gold, guns, or whatever "to make a killing". Her path intertwined with his, for a while.

In l959, the author with two girl friends decided to take a one year vacation in the United States. She came with them to New York and stayed in the U.S. for the rest of her life. These British girls, seeing America through European eyes, explored New York City with amazement and wonder. The world of work in television and the world of play in Manhattan was a fast paced adventure for this British woman. Then, she took the English girl's "Grand Tour" of America, on a Greyhound Bus, and her wonderment grew at the vastness, strangeness, beauty, and occasional ugly underbelly of this great country.

After a while, she went back to college and developed the basis for a new career in the U.S. It was now the sixties and she met the hippies and flower children. The young in the U.S. were surging with hope in the Kennedy years, then seething with rage and despair as the Vietnam War dragged on and the "Law and Order" backlash set in. She married, started a family and moved to Boston, which felt much more like home. Then there was a divorce and learning to make it in the world of work, while raising a child on her own. Single parenting was in those days, and still is, a challenge. Balancing work and family life, reaching out to neighbors and others for support, taking care of her child's and her own needs, is no easy task, but she found some creative ways of dealing with it. Many parents find, as she did, that raising a teenager is a particular challenge, while learning to set and respect boundaries with a growing young adult brings on some hard lessons. Then, the nest empties and there is another life to live.