If you learnt of darkness within your family tree - if you discovered an ancestor caused unimaginable pain - would you feel shame? Would you feel guilt? 

Bearing the guilt of our forebears may seem counterintuitive, after all, we’re not to blame for their actions. And yet it’s more common than you’d imagine. In her debut book ‘In My Grandfather’s Shadow’, Angela Findlay comes face-to-face with her own inherited trauma, uncovering the life of her dead grandfather, who was a decorated German General during the Second World War.

In this episode we learn how meaningful and life-changing it can be to learn about and uncover your family heritage, we explore the notion of places holding information and memories of the past, and we wrestle with the concepts of ‘good’ and ‘bad’.

Find out more about Angela here.

Your host is inkjockey founder Mark Heywood.

Behind The Spine is an inkjockey production, and the audio accompaniment to The Writing Salon. Sign up to the newsletter here.

You can view the full transcript here.