Heavy Luggage

“My brother Mark and I wake in the night to the sound of gunfire... The open window, with its mosquito-netting casement, allows us to hear male voices speaking outside, hushed and urgent. Then another volley of shots and bullets spray the side of the house. There is a soft thud against the wall above the bed on the opposite side of the room, where a few minutes earlier my brother had been sleeping. At the same time, a loud metallic twang outside is followed by the frightened bray of a donkey. Our donkey!”Whether caught in a war zone in Lebanon, living in a castle in Hong Kong, or coping with extreme heat in a remote Arabian outpost, such experiences were normality for Philippa and her brother. Thought-provoking, humorous and poignant, Heavy Luggage is the extraordinary story of their adventure-filled childhood in the 1950s and 60s as they and their parents travelled on troop ships with the British Army to some of the remotest places on the globe.Offering a glimpse into a bygone era towards the end of British Colonialism, when military families followed the Drum to wherever they were posted, Philippa and Mark take us on a personal voyage, exploring their unconventional upbringing. Their parents’ and grandparents’ similarly remarkable life stories are also woven into this unique memoir that examines a family legacy shaped by history.

As an army daughter, Philippa Annett lived in fourteen houses in eight countries before she was sixteen. Bound tightly to her family as they travelled the world, schooled initially by her mother and then at military forces’ schools, her inspiration to write was developed early by all that she experienced along the way.

Philippa comes from a family of chroniclers and her belief in the value of family stories provides the rich foundations for Heavy Luggage, as it did for her debut novel, The Diamond Fund.

Philippa and her husband live in Somerset. They have three children and eight grandchildren.