The One I Was

Restless, troubled Rosamond Hunter has spent most of her life running away from the past, filled with guilt about her involuntary role in her mother’s death. When her nursing job brings her back to Fairfleet, her childhood home, to care for an elderly refugee, she is forced to confront the ghosts that have haunted her for so long.

Her patient, Benny Gault, first came to Fairfleet, England, in 1939, having fled Nazi Germany on a Kindertransport train.

As his health fails, he and Rosamond begin to confide in each other. At first their tentative friendship revolves around the love they both shared for Rosamond’s glamorous grandmother, Harriet, but as their trust in each other grows, guilty secrets are exposed and history is turned on its head.

From the acclaimed author of Playing with the Moon and Restitution comes a beautiful and haunting tale of friendship, redemption and forgiveness across generations.

Revised edition: This edition of The One I Was includes editorial revisions.

Eliza Graham spent Biology lessons reading Jean Plaidy novels behind the text books, sitting at the back of the classroom. In English and History lessons she sat right at the front, hanging on to every word. At home she read books while getting dressed and cleaning her teeth. During school holidays she visited the public library multiple times a day.

At Oxford University she read English Literature on a course that regarded anything post about 1930 as too modern to be included. She retains a love of Victorian novels.

Eliza lives in the Oxfordshire countryside with her family in an ancient village. Her interests (still) mainly revolve around reading, but she also enjoys walking in the downland country around her home.

Her first novel, Playing with the Moon, was longlisted for Richard & Judy's Summer Read and World Book Day's Book to Talk About in 2007.