Finding Anna
For more than a year, I followed the lives of the Swiss Anabaptist exiles through passenger lists, historical records and five well-thumbed blue books. I knew there was a story hidden among all those names. I just had to find my way into it.
The Empty Suitcase
Five blue books have sat beside my desk for more than thirteen years. Filled with notes, bookmarks and scribbled cross-references, they hold thousands of names and stories from another time.
This is the story of how they came into my life, beginning with an empty suitcase and a journey to the Netherlands.
Journeys: Anabaptist Echoes
In 1711, Swiss Anabaptist families were exiled from their homeland and sent towards the Low Countries. Three hundred years later, following their journey led me somewhere unexpected: into their history, into my own ancestry, and eventually to my novel, As the Tree Falls.