The Past is Myself & The Road Ahead, By Christabel Bielenberg

Friday 17 February 2012 01:00 GMT

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Enriched by newly-discovered journals, this reissue unites two outstanding memoirs. A niece of Lords Rothermere and Northcliffe, Christabel Burton married the Hamburg lawyer Peter Bielenberg in 1934. Their courtship coincided with the Nazis' rise, and his bride's grasp that "something very nasty indeed" had "come to stay".

The Past is Myself recounts life under the Third Reich – outwardly privileged, inwardly anguished – until Peter's involvement with the 20 July 1944 bomb plot sent him to a camp. He survived: one of the adventures Bielenberg retells so keenly.

The Road Ahead recreates her family's more peaceful post-war blossoming in Ireland. These books remain an irreplaceable witness to our history.

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The Past is Myself & The Road Ahead, By Christabel Bielenberg

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