An Unexamined Life: A Memoir

An Unexamined Life is a frank and honest memoir by an 80 year-old author who looks back on her life as an expatriate in developing countries and her personal search for a sense of integrity, belonging and community. From her early unhappy childhood in New Zealand and Fiji, she followed her first husband to Hawaii, Iraq, Sudan, Vietnam and Jordan. Disillusioned with her marriage and international living, she left for London to join her lover when her young daughter became seriously ill. This relationship ended after living in Dublin and Yorkshire, and with a Cordon Bleu Diploma she moved to London on her own, eventually overcoming alcoholism and depression to find a new happiness within a second marriage. With her two children in English boarding schools, she went back to university and earned two Masters degrees in English and International Relations. Her interest in politics led her to being a parliamentary candidate for the Liberal Democrats in the election of 1992. She became an American citizen in 1997 and continued working for the Democrats in California. After the death of her husband, she moved from Santa Barbara, California to the Ojai Valley where she created an outstanding garden, and then to Colorado to be close to her son and grandchildren. Over the years, she has worked as a medical laboratory technician, a radio journalist, a chef and restaurant manager, a dance teacher, elementary school teacher and Visiting Angel. Now retired in Albuquerque, New Mexico she enjoys writing and the company of her two small dogs. Her memoir recounts her journey with sometimes painful introspection to the point where she can say that an examined life is the only life worth living.