Thread of Life: My Russian legacy

By Jennifer Kavanagh

by Tony Stoller 20th June 2025

Jennifer Kavanagh’s skilfully-crafted new book traces the history of her family through a series of vignettes, from St Petersburg to eventual haven in England. Jennifer draws out a series of threads – on the roles of women and of men, on home and on music, and on language and antisemitism – and puts these into historical context. It is a book concerned also with the nature of Jewish identity, as the author explores her own circumstance of being Jewish by birth and Quaker by convincement; Russian in heritage, but wholly English.