Warkworth woman tells story of search for her wartime mother in new book
A Warkworth woman has published a fascinating story about her search for her wartime service mother.
Catherine Atkinson wrote her heart-rending story, Violins and Spoons, after retiring from her management positions with the National Trust, where she managed Lindisfarne Castle and Seaton Delaval Hall,
Catherine’s long and complex search for her overseas birth mother was initially prompted by the sad death of her 13-year-old son.
The story began when both of her birth parents arrived in England during the Second World War.
Her father was a Canadian airman flying out of a base in Yorkshire on night bombing raids over Germany, while her mother worked at Harrods in London in Canadian military intelligence.
Catherine was born on a Canadian military base in the south of England where she started her life as the child of Canadian parents.
Both parents later returned to Canada after the war to lead separate lives.
Catherine was left in England and adopted by a professional violinist and her husband, the precentor of Durham Cathedral.
She took up nursing at the RVI in Newcastle, then later changed careers and became a principal lecturer in Textile Design before finally for the National Trust.
Catherine eventually tracked down her Canadian mother's family in Vancouver.
The catchy title of the book links her adopted mothers concert skills to her birth mothers practiced rhythm on the spoons.
The book has been well received as a heartrending, page turning, intelligent story of loss, persistence, and reunion.
Local bookshops in Amble, Warkworth, Alnwick and Berwick stock the book and it also available online.