Memory Maps

Lisa St Aubin de Teran is an endlessly fascinating author. Proud of her mixed heritage (from dour Scot to African princess), a citizen of everywhere and nowhere, constant rebel and traveller, indomitable adventuress with ongoing serious health problems, the slightly bemused almost victim of her ability to inspire determined and passionate love, tackling the consequences with immense energy and courage, and throughout, an observer and recorder of the setting and the cast of characters in her life dramas and travels - above all determined to hone her craft of writing - I am treating myself to the pleasure of reading her books, one after another, and Memory Maps fills in many of the gaps in some of her other histories. What can I say? Just get it!

This lady gets better and better. A poignant journey through some of her favourite places described with passion and sensitivity but without sentimentality. Her places aren't just the glamorous ones but sometimes somewhere where no-one else can recognise the special qualities. Fully recommended.

In the prologue to her partial memoir 'Memory Maps', Lisa St Aubin de Teran tells her readers that her book is a map of her memories of all the places she remembers most for having liked the best. There is, she tells us, another parallel map of all her least favourite destinations and the sites of her personal disasters; but this book is a compilation of her favourite places which, on reflection, may seem so disparate that they might need a little explaining. Driven by a sense of being different, Ms Teran tells her readers that she has been in search of those places where she might find people a little more like her and possibly provide her with a sense of belonging. So, in a series of fragmentary memories, the author briefly recounts her early life where she grew up in Wimbledon and Clapham with her four-times married and divorced mother and her half-siblings; we read of her Cornish holidays, her day trips to Brighton and of her travelling much further afield when she journeyed across parts of Russia and Europe with her parents. Back in London, we read of how, as an attractive sixteen-year-old, she met and married a Venezuelan exile named Jaime Teran and of how, after Jaime had been pardoned, she went to live and work on his sugar and avocado plantation in the Venezuelan Andes for seven years, until her husband's volatile mental state made it impossible for her to remain living on the estate. After her marriage breakdown, we read of Ms Teran's travels to various places in Europe and England; we learn very briefly of her marriage to poet George Macbeth and of how, after the breakdown of that marriage, she set off for Italy; and we read of her return to London and of her travels to Norfolk, where she met her third husband, artist Robbie Duff-Scott, who painted her portrait. Following this, in a series of travelogues, we read of Ms Teran's journeys to South America, Australia and New Zealand (where she met up with her mother's ex-lover and learnt why he had abandoned her mother many years before); to China, Thailand, Mali and many other locations, including the Caribbean island of Nevis where she lived for a time. We also read, briefly, about her homes in Venice and Umbria and, even more briefly, we read about her life with Robbie Duff-Scott.If you have read Ms Teran's previous part-memoirs: ' Off the Rails: Memoirs of a Train Addict ' and ' The Hacienda: My Venezuelan Years ' (or, indeed, her semi-autobiographical novels: ' The Slow Train to Milan ' and ' Keepers Of The House ') then you will be familiar with much of the content of 'Memory Maps', although the author does fill in a few of the 'gaps' - however, that said, Ms Teran makes various references to certain aspects of her life including nervous crises, financially crippling lawsuits and her being the victim of a criminal fraud, but she obviously doesn't wish to discuss these and there are naturally areas of her life that she has decided not to share with the reader - which is fine, this is Ms Teran's life story and she can tell it the way she wants to, but it does make for a somewhat disconnected narrative at times. Overall, though, I found this a deftly written and vividly described account of a colourful life, and I hope that in the not too distant future Ms Teran will write a full and, perhaps, a more chronological autobiography - which I'm sure would find an interested and appreciative audience waiting for it.4 Stars.

I thoroughly enjoyed this collection of memoirs. Being unable to indulge in an overseas holiday this year, this book certainly went a long way to taking the edge off my wanderlust. Had I not read "Hacienda" first, I might possibly have been a bit confused about the author's circumstances. Nevertheless, this is a hugely entertaining read. Lisa St Aubin de Teran's description of the issues surrounding food during her visit to Russia as a child had me laughing so hard that my mascara ended up trickling down my cheeks! This a truly wonderful book written by an individual who's had an extremely unique life. In spite of the occasional hardships that life has bestowed upon her, she usually succeeds in finding the good in people. I feel privileged that as a reader I've been able to indulge in a little part of it. Such was my enjoyment that I've devoured several of her other books since.