Lisa Saffron Author of one novel and several non-fiction books on parenting

Author Biography

Lisa Saffron grew up in the United States and moved to England in her twenties where she raised her family and worked in parenting support, health research and women's health information.
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Influences

Checkpoint is my first novel. I wrote it in order to work through my own painful and confused feelings about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Visits to Israel and the occupied territories with a study tour and a Compassionate Listening delegation inspired and informed me. I came home to England wanting to share what I had gained with others who are also disturbed and confused by this ongoing conflict. I’ve been in a creative writing group for years and have written and published non-fiction books, but the idea of writing a novel had never appealed to me. So it was a surprise to me when the idea popped into my head and took root. I was winding down a charity I’d set up that wasn’t going anywhere, and I was open to another big project.
At that time, a woman in my writing group recommended Evan Marshall’s book, Novel Writing—16 Steps to Success. I read all 16 steps in one evening and knew exactly what I’d be doing for the next year. I realised that writing a novel would be an effective and powerful way for me to express the feelings I have about Israel and Palestine. Marshall’s book gave me a strategy, which I followed to the letter. It appealed to the logical, organized side of my brain. I nourished the creative side with Deena Metzger’s Writing for Your Life—a guide and companion to the inner worlds.

Web Links

Stories and songs of the Holocaust

Length: 55:15 minutes (50.58 MB)
Format: Stereo 44kHz 128Kbps (CBR)

Songs of the Holocaust played by Phil Tomlinson, an amateur musician from Derbyshire who has been singing and playing music all his life starting with church music and including choral, folk, rock, blues, and orchestral. He has a particular interest in Yiddish and Klezmer music. In this tape, he performs Songs of the Holocaust We Are Here compilation by Eleanor Mlotek and Malke Gottlieb.
Annette Herskovitz was one of the Jewish children who survived the Holocaust. Her parents—Romanian Jews who had migrated to France in the 1920s — were among those who died in Auschwitz. Her teenage brother contacted a clandestine network and she was rescued to survive the war. Herskovits is now a committed activist, and has been working to help increase understanding between Arabs and Jews.