Foto de l'autor

Theo Richmond (1929–2022)

Autor/a de Konin: A Quest

1 obres 193 Membres 4 Ressenyes

Obres de Theo Richmond

Konin: A Quest (1995) 193 exemplars

Etiquetat

Coneixement comú

Nom oficial
Richmond, Herbert Theodore
Data de naixement
1929-05-07
Data de defunció
2022-08-25
Gènere
male
Nacionalitat
UK
Lloc de naixement
East London, England, UK
Lloc de defunció
Richmond upon Thames, England, UK
Llocs de residència
London, England, UK
Educació
St. Albans School, Hertfordshire, England
London School of Economics
Professions
publicist
television director
documentarian
writer
filmmaker
Relacions
Langley, Lee (widow)
Biografia breu
Theo Richmond was born to a family of Jewish immigrants in East London. His father Sam Richmond (who Anglicized his surname from Ryczke) owned a modest carpet business and his mother Bertha was a homemaker. His parents had left their hometown of Konin, Poland for the UK just before World War I.

Theo was educated at St. Albans School and completed two years of national service as a teacher with the Royal Air Force. He graduated with a degree in international economics from the London School of Economics. He became a publicist for Rank Films and then worked as a freelance publicist for authors. With the encouragement of John and Ray Boulting, he began to direct television series and make documentaries. He also contributed articles on history and the arts to newspapers and periodicals. He was best known for his only book, the internationally acclaimed Konin: A Quest, published in 1995, a blend of social history, collective biography, and personal memoir. It took seven years to complete and involved first-hand interviews with 400 former residents of the small town, the site of the murder of thousands of Jews by the Nazis in World War II. The book won the Royal Society of Literature's W.H. Heinemann Award and the Jewish Quarterly-Wingate Prize, and was called "a stunning achievement in literary journalism" by The New York Times reviewer.

Membres

Ressenyes

This book took me a long time to read, not because it dragged but because I needed to absorb every fascinating detail and digest the cruelty the human race is capable of inflicting. But still this was an immensely satisfying read. The research was excellent; the story of the rise and fall of one Jewish community beautifully written; the description of all the people the author meets on his quest so vivid and the education I received in what it means to be a Jew illuminating. Memoir and modern history all rolled into one marvellously readable book… (més)
 
Marcat
Patsmith139 | Hi ha 3 ressenyes més | Mar 15, 2021 |
Finished it sometime before dawn (last night the 5th), followed directly after with the novel "The Reader" by Bernhard Schlink. Both of which I am still digesting along with "Everything will be illuminated" - Safran Foer. I need sleep before I can write anything more..


Konin Jews were very proud of their library and the subject comes up many times in survivors accounts. There's a quote by Paul Johnson in his History of the Jews; "Pious Jews saw heaven as a vast library, with an archangel as the librarian", and I like that idea. Theo Richmond adds to it, "Hell has a library too. Two days after the Jews of Vilna were driven into the ghetto, they opened a library".




Don't know why I bother with using the update thingy...useless for correcting typos. Obviously I meant Ukraine, not Unkraine.


18.dec 2010 = found again, back on the to-read list.

Currently have misplaced this book somewhere...;( haven't finished it yet.

shelving it till it's found again.
… (més)
 
Marcat
velvetink | Hi ha 3 ressenyes més | Mar 31, 2013 |
An incredibly emotional journey of a man looking to find his Jewish roots. He travels back to a town whose Jewish population was practically wiped out by the Nazis.
 
Marcat
manyalibrarian | Hi ha 3 ressenyes més | May 21, 2007 |

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Estadístiques

Obres
1
Membres
193
Popularitat
#113,337
Valoració
4.2
Ressenyes
4
ISBN
10
Llengües
3

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