Her Secret Place

Her Secret Place Review

Coming of age novel set in the early 1970's in a tiny New Mexico village. Lizzy faces discrimination, prejudice, and abuse.. She doesn't lose her hope and belief that life is good and will get better. Enjoy exploring a time when teenagers weren't tied to their cell phones and computers. Experience a cultural setting that most of us didn't know existed. Lizzy deals with rejection from her mother and she suspects that her father sexually abused her when she was very young. She lives in a Hispanic culture that doesn't open it's arms to gringoes. Her intelligence is left lagging in a school system that gets the teachers who can't find jobs elsewhere. Lizzy can't even find a good book to read, which is tortuous for her! She learns life lessons in La Mesa that have nothing to do with books. She learns to stand up for herself and to find solutions in impossible situations. Through hard work and determination, she orchestrates a better life for herself.

The Secret Life of a Schoolgirl

The Secret Life of a Schoolgirl Review

The Secret Life of a Schoolgirl is an extraordinary memoir—a jewel. Rosemary Kingsland was born in India during the dying days of the British Raj. While there, she and her family lived a life of privilege. But with the fall of the Raj, they were forced to return to England, where their fortunes took a decided turn for the worse. In London, then in Cornwall, then back in London, the simmering tension between Rosemary’s parents erupted into outright warfare fueled by alcohol and her father’s persistent, unrepentant womanizing. It was a lonely, dangerous childhood.

But one day Rosemary’s life changed forever. At a café where she had gone to escape from a party her father had insisted she attend with him, she met Richard Burton, the dashingly handsome Welsh actor who was then the toast of the London stage. She had seen him in Under Milkwood some months before. She was an adolescent schoolgirl. He was twenty-nine.

The Secret Life of a Schoolgirl is a deeply felt evocation of first love, and of family bonds forged in intense isolation. It is made all the more remarkable by the luminous quality and riveting narrative voice of Rosemary Kingsland.


From the Hardcover edition.