Memoir

Last year, I cleared out the bottom drawer of an old chest belonging to my late mother-in-law. Among old receipts, used wrapping paper and the debris of every-day life, were interwoven a host of archival treasures. Hand-made books full of limericks from World War I, letters of thanks to a surgeon for saving their son’s life and a host of personal fragments, beginning almost 200 years ago. In a buff laundry note book, instead of a list of tablecloths, Great Aunt Lou had written in pencil the memoir of her mother, my husband’s Great-Great Grandmother, Annie Beauchamp.

Great Aunt Lou tells a tale of Brontesque magnitude in a world with little regard for human rights or freedoms. Annie was born in Tasmania, then Van Diemen’s Land, in 1834. Her life was full of tragedy and resilience, she survived shipwrecks, violent step-mothers and a forced marriage. Eight children later she finally came to England, a place she had yearned for without knowing. And all this in 1500 words… While Annie Beauchamp lived her life, she had no idea that her daughter would scribble down a summary, some 20 years after her death – a brief collection of second-hand memories, yet rich in imagery and evocative of the life of a woman whose fate lay dependant on the whims of others.

 

Guiding memoir writing is one of the most fascinating experiences I have had in teaching. Aiding people to frame and structure events and see their lives from new perspectives is emotional but deeply rewarding work. The student’s life becomes storytelling, and once they have put a scene into writing it also becomes a historical document. And everyone’s life story is worth telling. A student once said, ‘I don’t know what to write, my life hasn’t been that interesting.’ After a few prompts, she said, ‘Well, I survived a military coup in South Africa.’ What is every day for us, is life on Mars for someone else: working as a forester in the 1970s in Northamptonshire; living under the Peron regime in Argentina; a nurse’s life in the early 1950s before the age of antibiotics, at the time didn’t seem remarkable. Yet, these first-hand accounts yield valuable historical detail decades later.

 

Memoir borrows from fiction, and I encourage students to use the tricks and techniques of creative writing to present their stories. A little exaggeration does not go amiss. We work chapter by chapter, scene by scene. Those new to writing, you can begin on a book with great enthusiasm, only to realise that it could take years, and give up. Starting with the challenge of achieving three short stories or chapters from your life is task enough, but remember that Great Aunt Lou managed a whole life in 1500 words. This fragment has been an enriching and inspirational discovery for her descendants.