Threads of My Life
by Anita Canter
A memoir about childhood, family and what makes us tick
"Our block of flats was on the only street you could not drive through – hence the name Havekrogen, meaning 'garden corner'. This made it especially safe for children. It was in Havekrogen I experienced the freedom of 'playing out', of exploring and experimenting without the adults watching over me – and it all served as an inspiration for the activities I got involved with later on."
In this evocative memoir, the author of Tailors on Both Sides takes us back to her Jewish childhood on a lively street in Copenhagen. Through memories, photographs and case studies, Anita Canter shows how the little child who played out with her friends remained present in the inquisitive psychotherapist she would become – and how we are all profoundly affected by childhood experiences.
With insights into child development, family ties, Adlerian psychology and the movement for peace in the Middle East, this fascinating book was a lifetime in the making.
Buy the book
Buy from an independent bookshop: Threads of My Life is available from Liverpool's News from Nowhere radical bookshop on Bold Street.
Buy online: You can buy Threads of My Life from Amazon.
About the author
Anita Canter (née Sverdlin) was born in Copenhagen in 1940 and first came to England as an au pair girl in 1960. She then worked as a nursery teacher, a lecturer and a counsellor. Anita lived in Israel for three years in the 1980s, where she taught English and worked with Holocaust survivors. She was active in the peace movement and with groups of Jewish and Arab women.
Anita settled in Liverpool, working in private practice as a psychotherapist and supervisor, and running courses in Adlerian psychology and inner child work.
Anita's first book, Tailors on Both Sides, focused on her family history, including her grandparents' migration from Eastern Europe, the rescue of the Danish Jews by their fellow citizens during the Holocaust, and her own captivity as a small child in a prison camp. It sold to Jewish museums and Holocaust memorial centres around the world and Anita gave talks to children and adults about this history and what we can learn from it.
Anita died in 2015, survived by her husband Philip, two children and six grandchildren. Her life and work remain an inspiration to all who knew her.
Threads of My Life
by Anita Canter
Published in June 2014
by Tollington Press
Price £11.99
Hardback, 96 pages,
58 black and white photographs
ISBN 978-1-909347-02-1
