Outsider Inside: Volume III of the Hartland Trilogy

Like all refugees, Karl Hartland (Charles Hannam) carried within himself his 'hidden identity' as a child refugee from Germany, escaping the Holocaust, in which most of his family perished. Life experiences - in the British Army, at Cambridge, and later when returning to post-war Germany - brought conflict in terms of his sense of being an 'Englishman' in contrast to his early upper-class German-Jewish upbringing. After experiencing the British class system in India and Burma, and coping with the Army's inherent virulent racism, post-war academic success introduced him to the other side of the class divide, first as a teacher at a 'posh' prep school and later studying at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. In this final volume of his autobiographical trilogy (previous volumes: A Boy in Your Situation and Almost an Englishman - published by André Deutsch), Charles Hannam provides a telling account of the long-term effects of the refugee experience and what made him an 'Outsider.' It is compelling reading, especially for those who have experienced the wrench between cultures as part of the adjustment process of being forced to accommodate new values and behavior as a refugee.