Author John Heminway discusses his latest book on History News Network: In Full Flight raises questions that, for me, will linger forever. The first of many is “what would I have done?”In Full Flight is a story of two lives in one body. They belonged to Dr. Anne Spoerry, a good friend of mine who kept her two selves separated by a vertiginous wall of silence. At one level, In Full Flight pays tribute to Africa for its gift of secrecy—faithfully providing cover for those on the run. At another, it illuminates the burden a person of substance must shoulder even in the far reaches of a wild land.
Heminway discusses that he decided to write a biography on Anne Spoerry based upon his knowledge of her in Africa and her humanitarian work in Kenya. It was his search for what he calls her "European history" that lead to a shocking secret.
Like so many others, I believed she was a verifiable heroine. But something did niggle – the memory of Spoerry’s total embargo on the subject of the second world war, any mention of which made her quick to anger.
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