Reading Simona

Discovering my Grandmother through her writing

A Dieppoise Easter, 1930/31

May 02, 2016 by Alison

The second part of Pigtails and Pernod covers Simona's Easter holidays during her fifteenth year, and continues very much in the same vein as we have come to expect - eccentric characters, Johnny causing chaos, the women of the family very much in charge.

Christmas in Dieppe, 1928

April 14, 2016 by Alison

Pigtails and Pernod begins with Simona's regular journey across the channel, heading from Newhaven in December seas to spend her Christmas holidays with her grandparents in Dieppe. Aged just 12 she was already a regular on the ferry, travelling alone six times each year to and from school in Eastbourne.