23 March, 2020
These records remind me of my teenage years, of good memories and bad ones. I got my first record player from a second hand shop when I was fifteen and used to listen to people like Helen Shapiro, the Beatles, Cliff Richard and Connie Francis. The first record I ever bought was ‘Rock around the Clock’. I used to hang around the record shops in Leyton and Stepney and spent a lot of time listening to music in the booths. I like these 45s because they are solid, not like MP3s which have no substance.
Return to Keepsakes gallery
23 March, 2020
These are gorgeous, stunning pieces of jewellery that my parents gave me. If I feel lonely I can look at them and remember them. They even help me to remember what my parents felt and smelt like.
Return to Keepsakes gallery
23 March, 2020
In the 1960s my sister and I used to play with these. You have to pick up a stick without moving any of the others. Good for concentration. Mum needed the table so we used to lie on the lino.
Return to Keepsakes gallery
24 January, 2018
Anna tells us why she carries her reindeer in her pocket wherever she goes…
I first came to Britain in 1957 as an au pair to learn English. I married an Englishman and we went to live in New York. Those were the heady days of the 1960s, full of music and poetry, a whole different world from the insular life of Sweden, my native country. After several years I longed for some stability and serenity so I got myself a job in a hotel in Lapland, above the Arctic Circle. I arrived in the middle of winter, at the last stop in Sweden before the train crosses over to Norway, to a bleak place of deep snow called Riksgränsen. I bought this little reindeer from a short, squat brown-eyed Lappish nomad called Ella-Kari.
When my marriage broke up I came back to England. I’ve always loved it here. On 16 April 1976 I opened a restaurant, Anna’s Place, with the best of seasonal Swedish dishes. We made everything on the premises, bread, pastries, ice cream. We served Swedish herring and gravadlax which people had never seen in Britain before. I would carry this big tray of gravadlax out and I’d say if you don’t like it I’ll change it for a plate of soup but do try it. They completely loved it.
I carry this reindeer in my pocket wherever I go as a symbol of wide open spaces and freedom.
Return to Keepsakes gallery
