History Press swoops for Henderson’s ‘vivid’ family biography

The History Press has swooped for Kathy Henderson’s family biography My Disappearing Uncle: Europe, War and the Stories of a Scattered Family. 

Laura Perehinec, publishing director, acquired world rights directly from the author. The book will be published in hardback on 23rd February 2023. 

Framed through Henderson’s life, My Disappearing Uncle weaves together oral narrative and political history to tell the story of a family kept apart by 200 years of European “turmoil” through the “tales passed down by its undaunted women”. The publisher continued: “Told on a toboggan in the Austrian mountains, in the back seat of an overloaded Mini toiling through Europe, on a coal barge in Paris, folding linen in London . . . here are tales that range from Hungary to Austria, Italy, France and England and offer a glimpse of the history of Europe from the 19th to the 21st century.”

Perehinec commented: “Appropriately, My Disappearing Uncle came to me via another group of undaunted women – those of Greenham Common. It was while launching a new book there that we met Frankie Armstrong, who mentioned Kathy’s manuscript and thankfully it made its way to us. From the moment I started reading I was drawn in – Kathy has a wonderful eye for detail and a storyteller’s gift for narrative. The result is a kaleidoscopic tale full of memorable characters and settings, and a unique reflection on how stories make us.” 

Henderson said: “This book has been creeping up on me for a lifetime. I’ve always been drawn to stories and the starting point here, the ones that shaped us as we grew up and took the place of the family that wasn’t there, turned out to be a key to 200 years of European history and some surprising discoveries. Full of the adventures of the women who went before us, these were oral narratives, the kind of history that rarely reaches the official record, but the all-important way the lives of women are carried down the generations and probably always have been. So how do the stories work? What happens when they’re retold? Is it possible that they themselves influence what happens next?”