One Last Summer by Catrin Collier

One Last Summer by Catrin Collier

Allenstein, East Prussia, 1939 - Charlotte von Datski's parents hold a glittering ball to celebrate her eighteenth birthday and to announce her engagement to a Prussian Count. Meanwhile, Hitler is ready to plunge the world into war, one that will wipe East Prussia from the face of the map. Charlotte is forced to leave her beloved homeland. By 1946, Charlotte finds herself in London with her young son, struggling to adapt to a new country and a new way of life. The secret of Charlotte's life is revealed when a book entitled One Last Summer is smuggled out of a Russian prison camp and tells of an affair between a Russian POW and a Prussian aristocrat. It becomes an instant international bestseller. Years on, Charlotte's granddaughter, Laura, comes across material relating to these events. She persuades her grandmother to embark on a journey into her past. Charlotte finally faces the demons that have haunted her for over half a century and recalls the one great love of her life. A moving and turbulent novel unlike anything Catrin Collier has written before but which has her trademark storytelling skill and her ability to portray characters with depth and sympathy.

Catrin has written a wonderful stand alone novel inspired by her mother's experience fleeing Germany at the end of the Second World WarThere has been a great deal of interest in the story with several national newspapers interested in covering it. Confirmed so far: TELEVISION Catrin is appearing in a documentary on local celebrities and the streets they lived called 'Stories From the Street' HTV HTV will also be covering the story behind the book for the regional news in Wales. RADIO BBC RADIO WALES will be interviewing Catrin on her new book (date tbc) PRESS There will be a major interview in the WESTERN MORNING NEWS There wil also be an interview in SWANSEA EVENING POST Review to come in YOURS magazine ONE LAST SUMMER has been chosen as the bookclub read for COUNTRY AND BORDER LIFE magazine. EVENTS Catrin will be doing formal signings in WH Smiths Pontypridd - Saturday 2 June Borders, Llantrisant - Tuesday June Waterstones, Swansea - Saturday 9 June WH Smiths, Cardiff - tbc And stocksignings in Waterstones (Cardiff) and Camelot Books (Cardiff) Catrin has also been asked to judge a writing competition at Borders, Swansea in July

Catrin Collier was born into a close Welsh family in 1948 - very aware of her dual heritage. The war was recent, her mother German, her father Welsh. She loved her German grandmother, spent summers with her in Germany, and couldn't understand how ordinary Germans had allowed the monstrous Nazi regime to flourish. After working in various jobs, she became a full-time writer in 1994. In 1995 she accompanied her mother when she returned to East Prussia (now Poland) for the first time in fifty years. There she read the diaries that her mother and grandmother had kept and talked about life under the Nazis. ONE LAST SUMMER is the result of those conversations. She lives with her husband in Wales.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780752885780
ISBN 10	0752885782
Title	One Last Summer
Author	Catrin Collier
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Orion Publishing Co
Year published	2007-05-30
Number of pages	336
Prizes	Short-listed for Romantic Novelists' Association Awards: Romantic Novel of the Year 2008
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
Note	Unavailable