Alice Ekert-Redwood

Alice Maria Augusta Ekert-Rotholz (* September 5, 1900 in Hamburg as Alice Maria Augusta Ekert , † June 17, 1995 in London ) was a German writer .

Life

She was the daughter of the British export merchant of Swedish - Russian origin Maximilian Ekert and his German-Jewish wife Hedwig Mendelsson. In 1920 Alice Ekert married the dentist Ludwig Rotholz and from then on bore the double name Ekert-Rotholz. In the 1920s the first poems by Alice M. Ekert-Rotholz appeared in the " Weltbühne ". In 1933 she emigrated with her husband to London , from where the family moved to Bangkok in 1939 . The stay there lasted until 1952. Ekert-Rotholz had contact in Thailand with Christian circles such as the Catholic Action , members of the Ursuline Order and the YMCA . Ekert-Rotholz's extensive travels in Asia , Australia and the Caribbean also took place during this period . In 1952 she returned to Hamburg with her husband . In the following years she worked as a journalist ; next came novels and travel books . After the death of her husband in 1959, she moved to London , where she lived in Hampstead until her death . She is buried in Highgate Cemetery , London.

With her first novel Rice from Silver Bowls, she achieved an international bestseller , which has been translated into numerous languages. Before that she had published a memory book with Siam behind the bamboo forest with impressions from her time in Thailand. Her subsequent novels are also predominantly social stories set in exotic surroundings. Ekert-Rotholz 'books, which can be classified as entertainment literature, were particularly successful in the Federal Republic of the 1950s and 1960s and were also included in their programs by numerous book clubs ; the total circulation of her works is over three million copies sold. Critics did not always agree with her works, but granted her a certain “English” dry sense of humor and observation despite all the clichéd romanticism. The author wrote novels into old age. They are only today antiquarian acquire or in remaining copies.

She wrote poetry all her life alongside her novels. In 2000, on the occasion of her 100th birthday, Hoffmann and Campe published the volume of poetry Im feurigen Licht. Collected poems from 1929 to 1993 . Edited and with an afterword by her son Heinz Redwood.

Works

Siam behind the bamboo wall , Munich 1953 Rice from silver bowls , Hamburg 1954 Where tears are forbidden , Hamburg 1956 Punishing sun, tempting moon , Hamburg 1959 Poppy in the mountains , Hamburg 1961 The pilgrims and the travelers , Hamburg 1964 Ivory from Beijing , Hoffmann and Campe, Hamburg 1966 The jewel tree , Hamburg 1968 Five o'clock in the afternoon , Hamburg 1971 Foxes in Kamakura , Hamburg 1975

The flowing world or from the life of a geisha , Reinbek near Hamburg 1978 Guest performance at the Rialto , Hamburg 1978 Big Wind, Little Wind , Hamburg 1980 Escape from the bamboo gardens , Hamburg 1981 Just a cup of tea , Hamburg 1984 Fear and Compassion , Hamburg 1987 Indira's window , Hamburg 1990 The last empress , Hamburg 1992 In the fiery light , Hamburg 2000

literature

• Wilhelm Sternfeld , Eva Tiedemann: German Exile Literature 1933-1945. A bio-bibliography , Schneider, Heidelberg / Darmstadt, 1962

Web links

• Literature by and about Alice Ekert-Rotholz in the catalog of the German National Library
• Information about Alice Ekert-Rotholz from Perlentaucher
• Information about Alice Ekert-Rotholz from the Hoffmann und Campe publishing house

Individual evidence

1. ^ Photo of Alice Ekert-Rotholz´ grave on flickr.com , taken on October 12, 2008, accessed on September 16, 2010
2. ↑ Tons of tears . In: Der Spiegel , published March 10, 1965, accessed September 16, 2010