Jean Pearson was born in 1936 and brought up in Harrow, West London. Not yet three years old when WW2 broke out, she attended the local primary school. Later she won a scholarship to Haberdashers Aske’s School for Girls, Acton, when the Welfare State was inaugurated after the war. She did not follow the escalator to university but later attended Brunel, London University as a mature student, with three small children to care for. She gained honours in Psychology and Sociology.

In 1977 she qualified as a social worker at Bedford College, London University and went onto work in the Psychiatric Unit of Northwick Park Hospital, Harrow for the next nine years. Concurrently she trained as a Jungian Analyst and became psychotherapist-in-charge of The Berkeley Centre, Hounslow. In 1982 she left to set up a private practice in Hanwell, West London, where she has worked for the last 23 years.

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Set amongst a backdrop of World War 2, Caught Between Two Wars is about growing up during a time of world upheaval. Alongside, a story of domestic conflict threatens the stability of family life. There is also a mysterious illness which cannot be cured.

The story begins almost ninety years ago, giving an account of a world that will soon be gone. Germany is about to invade Europe and the UK will be next on the list. Life rapidly becomes a time of rationing, blackouts, bombing and fatherless families. At home a dark secret makes itself known which will cast a long shadow over the writer’s childhood. Peace is declared in 1945, but the domestic warfare smoulders on until it bursts into flame, ending in a death.

Now aged 88, the writer, a Jungian Analyst, revisits her childhood and tries to make sense of it all. Finally making her peace with the past she finds she has been “surprised by joy”.

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