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In [[War and Love: A family's testament of anguish, endurance and devotion in occupied Amsterdam by Melanie Martin|War and Love: A family's testament of anguish, endurance and devotion in occupied Amsterdam]] Melanie Martin reconstructs what happened to her family in occupied Amsterdam in WWII. It's a highly compelling, if occasionally shocking read. Days after she finished the book Sue could not stop thinking about what she had read and was delighted when the author agreed to chat to her.
 
* '''Bookbag: When you close your eyes and imagine your readers, who do you see?'''
* '''BB: What made you decide to publish the story? Were your family at all reluctant for you to go ahead?'''
MM: My mother was reluctant at times for me to publish the stories because there are aspects of what happened which are very personal and some which are regarded as family secrets. I decided to push ahead with it for a number of reasons. I explained these to my mother but then she would forget (she has dementia) so I [[Melanie Martin's Letter to her Mother|set it out in a letter]].
The other part which was uncomfortable was publishing what happened to Liesje when she had never wanted to talk about it. So the parts relating to Liesje are mostly not her words. Through my research I have pieced together what happened. I loved Liesje very much. We were close and understood each other. She was beautiful, brave and loving and her story, above all, deserved to be told. I think she would be proud of me now and as I said to my mother ''In 100 years' time none of us will be here anymore but the record of what happened will be.''

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