It’s important to know where you’re from so you know where you’re going.
My family were refugees and often told stories to remind themselves where they had come from. She had a fairy-tale childhood in Baghdad, which went wrong: there was terrible persecution of the Jews and they tried to escape but they got stopped at a checkpoint, then imprisoned. Cold Comfort Farm’s Flora was my guide to the art of being single and happy. Cathy and Heathcliff were my template for a love affair. The less talented Brontë, the other Brontë. Tragic, virginal, sweet, stoic, selfless, Anne. Lucy Honeychurch gave me ideas about living an artist’s life. The Blurb (from Goodreads): Anne Brontë is the forgotten Brontë sister, overshadowed by her older siblings - virtuous, successful Charlotte, free-spirited Emily and dissolute Branwell. Scarlett O’Hara gave me courage to fight for independence. Anne Of Green Gables taught me that imagination might not be a terrible flaw. The Little Mermaid faced obstacles in her quest to marry a prince. Finding the Middle Eastern heroine Scheherazade was a way to come back to that.
But I’m very close to my family and proud of being an Iraqi-Jew. The women tended to get married early and be housewives – I didn’t want to do that. They showed me there were other worlds, other ways to be.
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