Their Promised Land: My Grandparents in Love and War by Ian Buruma - review by Jeremy Lewis

Jeremy Lewis

England, My England

Their Promised Land: My Grandparents in Love and War

By

Atlantic Books 305pp £18.99
 

As a child in the late 1950s and early 1960s, Ian Buruma came over with his family from his home in Holland to visit his English grandparents. Bernard and Winifred – known to each other as ‘Bun’ and ‘Win’ – lived in St Mary Woodlands House, a large vicarage in Berkshire. The Burumas would be greeted by ‘Grandpop’, a sturdy, kindly figure in a green tweed jacket, smoking a pipe; there was a cook and a charlady and a homely smell of old dog. In the summer, croquet was played on the lawn and village fetes were held, with cucumber sandwiches and home-made cakes served up to local grandees. One of the many stamp-sized photographs in the book shows Win holding a paper-hatted Buruma up to a lighted Christmas tree.

It was all quintessentially English, and proudly so; and yet there were small markers that differentiated Bun and Win from their more conventional neighbours. They were both passionate about music, Wagner in particular. Their surname was Schlesinger, and a retired colonel in the village was occasionally heard to mutter, ‘Don’t

Sign Up to our newsletter

Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.

RLF - March

A Mirror - Westend

Follow Literary Review on Twitter