Remembering Axel and Fabian

Lilian Ripley was born in Switzerland in December 1912. Her father, Teddy de Berends, was the son of the Russian ambassador to Sweden, Spain and Brazil. Her mother was also from a diplomatic family - she was the daughter of Sir George Buckley-Mathew, who had many posts in the Colonial service, including being Governor of the Bahamas Islands. It was a multicultural, multilingual family that Lilian grew up in. Her aunt Olga, "la Baronne", was the widow of Baron Alexei von Wolff auf Hinzenberg und Wangasch, and she had had to flee with him from Russia during the 1917 revolution. This memoir, Remembering Axel and Fabian, was written in 1995, shortly before Lilian's death. It tells of her seemingly idyllic upbringing in small-town Switzerland, with doting and faithful servants, a loving family, education at a nearby Convent school and holidays in France. It was a life that apparently lacked nothing, and yet by the age of 11 she had experienced the tragedy of the deaths of three of her close family members. This is her tribute to them. www.orrydian.co.uk