My Disappearing Uncle: Europe, War and the Stories of a Scattered Family

‘A fascinating book about a remarkable family.’ - Edmund de Waal

Memoir, detective work and political history come together in this vivid and moving family biography told through the stories passed down by its undaunted women.

Heard on a toboggan in the Austrian mountains, in the back seat of an overloaded Mini toiling through Europe, on a coal barge in Paris … here are tales that take us from Hungary, Germany and Italy to France, England and Argentina, and from the young actress in fi n de siècle Vienna to the 16-year-old schoolboy who disappeared for over fifty years. My Disappearing Uncle is a journey of discovery that explores the complicated dance between the present and the past.

‘Henderson’s narrative … includes a wide range of memorable personalities as we move into and then beyond the Vienna of Freud, Mahler and Klimt … Centuries of turbulent, superbly narrated history.’ - Jewish Chronicle