Castles in the Air: A Family Memoir of Love and Loss

An eight-year-old child witnesses her mothers secret and knows that from that moment life will never be the same. After Molly her mother dies Alison uses her legacy to make a film about Mollys relationship with a man she had known since she was a teenager. What hold did this man have over her mother? And what other secrets was her mother hiding? Castles in the Air follows the life of Molly Ripley through the eyes of her daughter Alison. From Mollys childhood in colonial Hong Kong and Malaya; wartime adventures as a rookie office girl in the far east outpost of Bletchley Park then as a young nurse in the city; tangled romance and marriage... to her challenging middle-age when demons from the past seem set to overwhelm her. The writer in Alison cant stop until she reveals the story of Mollys past. But as a daughter does she have the courage to face up to the uncomfortable truths of Mollys seemingly ordinary life? As she unravels the private self that Molly kept secret Alison realises that she is trying to find herself through her mothers story. By trying to make sense of the past can she move on with her future? Honest yet unsentimental and told with abundant love and compassion this is a profoundly moving portrait of a womans life hopes and dreams. We learn not only about Molly but about mothers and daughters secrets and love. A story for readers struggling to come to terms with the trauma of losing loved ones.