The Letter in the Bottle

Karen Liebreich

The Letter in the Bottle

KAREN LIEBREICH has a doctorate in history from Cambridge University and a research diploma from the European University Institute in Florence. She has also worked as a cultural assistant for the French Institute in London and a documentary researcher and producer for television. Her previous book, Fallen Order: Intrigue, Heresy and Scandal in the Rome of Galileo and Caravaggio, was published by Atlantic Books in 2004.

‘I love a good quest and could not speak to anyone until I’d finished The Letter in the Bottle. It’s a lucid exposition of the simultaneous equation of love and pain that is being a mother, and moving but not remotely mawkish. Karen Liebreich has bottled this message perfectly.’ Rachel Johnson, author of The Mummy Diaries

‘Liebreich is forced to confront the motivations for her “Grail quest” and question her confidence in her intellectual powers. A book which is as haunting as it is elegant.’ Daily Telegraph

ALSO BY KAREN LIEBREICH:

Fallen Order: Intrigue, Heresy and Scandal in the Rome of Galileo and Caravaggio

The Family Kitchen Garden
(with Jutta Wagner and Annette Wendland)

First published in Great Britain in 2006 by Atlantic Books,
an imprint of Grove Atlantic Ltd.

This revised paperback edition published in Great Britain
in 2010 by Atlantic Books.

The moral right of Karen Liebreich to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act of 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

Every effort has been made to trace or contact all copyright holders. The publishers will be pleased to make good any omissions or rectify any mistakes brought to their attention at the earliest opportunity.

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A CIP catalogue record for this book
is available from the British Library.

ISBN: 978 1 84887 577 7
eISBN: 978 0 85789 051 1

Printed in Great Britain

Atlantic Books
An imprint of Grove Atlantic Ltd
Ormond House
26–27 Boswell Street
London WC1N 3JZ

www.atlantic-books.co.uk

To Maurice

Contents

Abstract

Epigraph

The Letter in the Bottle

Original Transcript: The Letter

The Search Concludes

Three Years Later

Conclusion

The Mother’s Story

Postscript

Acknowledgements

Sources

On Sunday 31 March 2002 a bottle containing a letter washed up on the beach at Warden Bay, Isle of Sheppey, Kent.

After a seven year search, the author of the letter finally made contact . . .

‘Un livre est une bouteille jetée en pleine mer sur laquelle il faut coller cette etiquette: attrape qui peut.’

‘A book is a bottle cast into the open sea on which the label reads: catch me if you can.’