AustLit

'My revenge on Hitler is … a lifetime in which delight has reached me from a hundred sources, and been welcomed.

'A story of courage, unconventionality and lust for life.

'Vera Wasowski was just seven years old when German soldiers marched her and her family into the Lwów Jewish ghetto in Poland. She watched her father take his own life and her mother accede to sexual blackmail in order to ensure their survival. Her story is one of a child surviving hell.

'After the war, Vera studied journalism at Warsaw University, where she threw herself into the bohemian scene. In 1958, she migrated to Australia with her husband and young son, to escape rising anti-Semitism. There she would carve out a bold career as a TV researcher and producer at the ABC on pioneering programs such as This Day Tonight. It was a wild time for politics, arts and the media, and Vera was at the centre of things, mixing with the Hawkes in the eighties, and forming a close friendship with artist Mirka Mora.

'In his inimitable style, acclaimed biographer Robert Hillman captures Vera’s fierce and passionate take on life and tells her amazing story.' (Publication summary)