Invisible Ink

By Martha Leigh. Martha’s parents were both extraordinary people living in extraordinary times. Ralph was a brilliant, poor Jew from Hackney. Edith, also Jewish was from a Czernowitz, at that time part of Austria-Hungary and today in Western Ukraine. She was a gifted pianist. Edith and Ralph met as students in Paris in 1937 and were separated by the war. Their intimate, emotional and sometimes humorous six year correspondence throughout the war led to marriage in 1945. Each bore scars. She, from escaping the Nazis, he from childhood tragedy. Overshadowing them both was a secret that burdened Ralph for most of his life. After the war he became the world expert on Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Edith devoted herself to her piano performing and teaching. Invisible Ink is a compassionate and astute account of their relationship.

My mother, who died when I was 18, had been very economical with the truth as she had wanted to shield me from the horrors of WWII. However, when she was dying, she told me in instalments about her miraculous escape from the Nazis. I also found out that whilst working for the French Resistance and later the Free French, my uncle saved the lives of many people including my cousin, my mother and his own mother, whom he smuggled out of the Soviet Union.

She continues: My father left a large archive of poems, short stories, a play, diaries, notebooks, intimate letters and an astonishingly frank novel. I think he enjoyed the prospect of his children sorting through his personal documents. With his characteristic wicked humour, he also left us a sheet of paper, blank apart from the heading, ‘This page is written in invisible ink.’

The book also shows the author’s own journey as she uncovers the family history which was to shape her life. ‘As soon as I retired’, she said ‘I seized my pen’.

REVIEWS:

David Herman, Jewish Chronicle, January 27th, 2021:

Invisible Ink is a beautifully written, superbly researched and deeply moving story of Jewish immigrants and refugees. It is a gripping story, superbly told, crammed full of fascinating details which bring her parents to life. You won’t be able to put it down.

Sarah Birch, Hackney Citizen, January 28th, 2021:

Written in a lively and engaging style, Invisible Ink is a moving story that probes with admirable delicacy some of the most pressing questions of our era

Michael Fitzpatrick, The Daily Telegraph, March 8th, 2021: It is not only a remarkable story of remarkable people but also a story told with great warmth and sensitivity. Invisible Ink is also available as an eBook and as an audiobook.