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Released: 28/03/2018

ISBN: 9781788034548
eISBN: 9781789010442

Format: Paperback/eBook

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Find Another Place

by Ben Graff

"'Families are their stories,' said my grandfather Martin that late autumn day in 2001, as he placed a clear plastic folder containing his journal into my hands."

Part historical meditation on people now gone, part detective story and journey of discovery, Find Another Place speaks to how we remember and re-assess what has gone before and how we make sense both of our here and now and the future. Ben’s grandfather had always wanted to be a writer and gave the author his journal shortly before his death.

After many endings, paper often remains. Letters from his parents written in the 1970s before they were married, together with a handful of poems, extracts from diaries and other materials all form part of this reflection. It is possible to get to know people better, even after they are gone.

A family’s interactions with the Isle of Wight, in war and peace, happy times and sad, run through the narrative. As does a relationship with literature, the desire to write and a passion for the game of chess. Anyone who has ever lost a parent; had a child or reflected on the fragility and beauty inherent in everyday life will enjoy this book.

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Book Reviews

Heart warming and thought provoking a truly amazing read!

I adored this book! I laughed, I cried, I nodded my head in agreement, as someone who has not only lost a parent, has a parent with MS and is a parent myself I could relate to this book on so many different levels and it will stay with me for years to come.

My favourite quote from the book has to be “He had focussed more on the dead than the living. “You get fewer complaints that way” he had told me with a shrug.”

by Cherrie Walker

A very thoughtful, emotional read, both happy and sad.

by Shelia Nixon

This is a wonderful book. It combines loving details of relationships with extended family over many decades with insightful observations and personal reflection on what it is to be a parent, a child, a son and a father. It examines the writing process on a personal level, and draws on journals, letters, poems and musings from multiple generations of the same extended family. From Jewish refugees who arrived in the UK in 1900 to Irish farmers of the mid century and including contributions from the author's children born after 2000 , it covers a century of struggle, romance, loving, birthing and dying, but most importantantly of living. Of living the sorts of lives which we all live, full of uncertainty but also full of love; struggle as well as success, feelings of overwhelming sorrow at the loss of a beloved daughter still in her teens, and of overwhelming joy at the birth of a grandchild. And the eternal mystery of what it all means, coping somehow with losing one's parents at whatever age we are, and how to guide and nurture the next generation. Thoroughly recommended for anyone who is a son, daughter, father or mother, and who ponders on life's mysteries while trying to receive and give love to one's family, past, present and future..

by Adrian Walker