Summary of Miriam Margolyes's This Much Is True

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.

Book Preview: #1 Daddy was a doctor who was extremely handsome as a young man. He had a high forehead, glossy black hair, a ravishing smile, and a little moustache. He looked rather like Charlie Chaplin. He was a very fine doctor, well-mannered, with a profound sense of right and wrong.

#2 My grandfather, Philip Margolyes, was a peddler who sold small gems and trinkets. He was a quiet, sweet man who was liked by his customers. The family was orthodox Jewish, and my father suffered from rickets as a child.

#3 Daddy’s parents spoke and read Hebrew, but they were not formally educated. They were poor but determined that their children would enjoy every benefit of a Scottish education. Daddy was especially bright, and in 1917, he received his call-up papers.

#4 My father, who was a doctor, took the name off the draft when he heard that my grandfather wanted me to have it. He was extremely shy in company, and could never understand my delight in being different.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Mar 9, 2022
• ISBN: 9781669357803

IRB Media

With IRB books, you can get the key takeaways and analysis of a book in 15 minutes. We read every chapter, identify the key takeaways and analyze them for your convenience.

Book preview

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

Daddy was a doctor who was extremely handsome as a young man. He had a high forehead, glossy black hair, a ravishing smile, and a little moustache. He looked rather like Charlie Chaplin. He was a very fine doctor, well-mannered, with a profound sense of right and wrong.

#2

My grandfather, Philip Margolyes, was a peddler who sold small gems and trinkets. He was a quiet, sweet man who was liked by his customers. The family was orthodox Jewish, and my father suffered from rickets as a child.

#3

Daddy’s parents spoke and read Hebrew, but they were not formally educated. They were poor but determined that their children would enjoy every benefit of a Scottish education. Daddy was especially bright, and in 1917, he received his call-up papers.

#4

My father, who was a doctor, took the name off the draft when he heard that my grandfather wanted me to have it. He was extremely shy in company, and could never understand my delight in being different.

#5

My father, a doctor, moved to London to take a locum position at a local surgery. He got a house in Plaistow and engaged a housekeeper, Miss Shrimpton, to cook and look after him. In London, he hoped to settle down and lead the conventional life of a respected doctor.

Insights from Chapter 2

#1

My mother, Ruth Sandeman Walters, was the most important person in my life. She was the most intelligent yet untutored woman that I ever met. She was constantly striving to separate herself from the common crowd.

#2

My family story illustrates the archetypal trajectory of a working-class Jewish immigrant family. My grandfather was one of the founders and first president of the South East London synagogue in New Cross. He opened a furniture shop in Church Street, Camberwell, but he hoped for more.

#3

My grandfather’s father, Simon Sandeman, had a shop in Leicester. In the local directory of 1878, he was listed as a wholesale retail jeweller and clock dealer. He was jailed for fraud and receiving stolen goods in 1881, and his son, my grandfather, was ten years old when his father went to prison.

#4

My mother, Doris, was the angel of the family. She was brilliant at school and won a scholarship to Goldsmiths College. She would have been the first member of the family to go to university, but she developed meningitis during the First World War and died, aged just seventeen.

#5

My mother, Flora, married my father, Maurice, and raised her social status in a single stroke. They went to live at my father’s house in Terrace Road, Plaistow, where he was in single-handed practice as a GP.

Insights from Chapter 3

#1

I was born in 1941, in Oxford, England. My parents came to Oxford as outsiders, and it has always been an unfriendly city for outsiders. I was a much prized, spoilt, golden child.

#2

I was four when the war ended in 1945. Mummy decided that Victory in Europe Day must be marked in some way. We