Interview

Minette talks about her life in a recent interview with Anne Cattrell:

MW: It was. I remember my childhood being very light-hearted when he was around, although that may be a rose-tinted memory. He was a jolly person who used to take us blackberrying or swimming when he felt well enough, also on caravan holidays. After his death, life became rather serious. He had been ill for a long time as a result of his war service, and there were no savings to carry us through. The only money we had after his death was my mother’s War Widow’s pension (equivalent to the dole) and whatever she could earn by painting miniatures. It was a stressful and unhappy period, made worse because my brothers and I weren’t allowed to go to the funeral or even know when it was happening. I’m sure my mother did this with the best of intentions, but it left me confused about what I was supposed to feel.

AC: Eighteen months later, in September 1962, you were sent away to boarding school. How did that affect your life?

MW: It made me very independent. I certainly don’t regret going, although the outcome wasn’t what my mother expected. She hoped for a pliant, conservative daughter who would marry into money. Instead she got an unconventional, self-sufficient one! The irony was that I was only able to go to private school because my father was dead. As a ‘semi’ orphan of an Army Officer, I was eligible for - and won - a foundation scholarship that cost virtually nothing but which gave me an excellent education. I’m still struggling with that conundrum. Godolphin was the springboard for the rest of my life but, if my father had lived, he couldn’t have afforded to send me there or support me through a degree.

AC: You took a gap year between school and university which was unusual in 1968. Where did you go and what did you learn from it?

MW: I went as a volunteer to Israel with a group called The Bridge in Britain. It was founded by Greville Janner MP (now Lord Janner), and grew out of his desire to introduce Israel to non-Jewish English youngsters who knew little or nothing about Judaism or the Jewish state. Several hundred applied and 23 of us were selected — 12 boys and 11 girls. We spent nearly seven months working on a kibbutz and in Jerusalem.

On a personal level, I learnt never to judge anyone by his or her outward trappings or because of what I’d been told about them in advance. But it wasn’t just a Jewish/Gentile thing, it was also a ‘class’ and ‘sex’ thing. A private-school education counts for nothing when your job is to shovel chicken-shit. Not every 18-year-old male is a rapist, and girls don’t break out in green pustules when they lose their virginity. (You have to remember I was at an all-girls’ boarding school, run by elderly spinsters!) Telling the difference between a Jew and a Palestinian is impossible — they’re both Semites. Prejudice comes from ignorance, although bigots from all races, classes and religions pride themselves on how well informed they are.

AC: Are you still interested in the Middle East?

MW: Isn’t everyone? The world takes a shuddering breath every time the Middle East drumbeat starts up again. I was there in the wake of the 6-day war, and it was a magical time. There was no hostility and we made as many friends amongst the indigenous Palestinians as we did amongst Jews. Visitors could move freely, so we travelled around the West Bank, the Negev desert and the whole of Israel without fear.

Sadly, it was a false idyll that lasted only four-five years before the PLO began hijacking planes to draw attention to the Palestinian refugees. In 1968, they were a hidden problem because the world wasn’t interested in how many of them had been displaced. I abhor terrorism, particularly suicide bombers, but both sides are to blame for the terrible cycle of hatred and violence that continues to kill indiscriminately. It is no solution for Israel to barricade Palestinians into ghettos, then build one for themselves by constructing a wall around their border. It dishonours the extraordinary bravery of the Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto if today’s generation is content to live in one now. (top)

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