In this haunting memoir, Alison Gold gives a luminous account of key moments in her life that brought her to be the writer she is. They tell of her early activism; they tell of her descent into alcoholism; they tell of her recovery; they tell of her discovery of the power of writing to give a shape and meaning to a life, including working with Miep Gies. Found and Lost is both a tender memorial to the extraordinary people in her life, and a compelling tale of redemption.

Starting with her childhood experience of running her primary school ‘Lost and Found’ depot, Gold develops, though a series of letters, a meditation on ageing, friendship, loss and the forces that link us to the dead. In the very act of writing, she begins to find a route out of depression and grief.

Alison Leslie Gold is best known for her works that have kept alive stories from the time of the Holocaust, stories of courage and survival – most famously her Anne Frank Remembered, co-authored with Miep Gies (who risked her life to protect the Frank family). She has never chosen to write about her own life or what made her into a gatherer of other people’s stories, until now, in Found and Lost. For she has chosen to go back to her childhood in order to chart the origin of her need to save objects, stories, people – including herself – who she has sensed to be on a road to perdition.