The Pilgrims' Castle: A Poet, A War, A Family's Secrets
Jon Day
Jan 2027 · John Murray · Narrated by Mark Elstob
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infoThis book will become available on January 28, 2027. You will not be charged until it is released.
About this audiobook
'I love Jon Day's writing' OLIVIA LAING
One Amsterdam house. Many versions of the past. A family reckoning with the truth.
Growing up, Jon Day heard the same stories as everyone else. There was the grand canal house in Amsterdam where, during the Second World War, the exiled German writer Wolfgang Frommel had hidden young Jewish men from the Nazis. It was a place, his family said, of literature and poetry, courage and sacrifice, home to an extraordinary circle of artists and intellectuals known as Castrum Peregrini - the Pilgrims' Castle.
But in that house, friendship didn't always mean just friendship.
Talking to family, former members of the group and those who finally chose to break their silence, Day pieces together a very different story. Behind the celebrated legend lay a hidden world shaped by the inspiring yet dangerous teachings of the controversial poet Stefan George, where ideals of beauty and mentorship became entangled with manipulation, secrecy and sexual abuse.
As national memory collides with suppressed testimony, The Pilgrims' Castle uncovers a secret history of wartime resistance, hidden coercion and the competing stories we tell ourselves to survive the past.
One Amsterdam house. Many versions of the past. A family reckoning with the truth.
Growing up, Jon Day heard the same stories as everyone else. There was the grand canal house in Amsterdam where, during the Second World War, the exiled German writer Wolfgang Frommel had hidden young Jewish men from the Nazis. It was a place, his family said, of literature and poetry, courage and sacrifice, home to an extraordinary circle of artists and intellectuals known as Castrum Peregrini - the Pilgrims' Castle.
But in that house, friendship didn't always mean just friendship.
Talking to family, former members of the group and those who finally chose to break their silence, Day pieces together a very different story. Behind the celebrated legend lay a hidden world shaped by the inspiring yet dangerous teachings of the controversial poet Stefan George, where ideals of beauty and mentorship became entangled with manipulation, secrecy and sexual abuse.
As national memory collides with suppressed testimony, The Pilgrims' Castle uncovers a secret history of wartime resistance, hidden coercion and the competing stories we tell ourselves to survive the past.
'I love Jon Day's writing' OLIVIA LAING
One Amsterdam house. Many versions of the past. A family reckoning with the truth.
Growing up, Jon Day heard the same stories as everyone else. There was the grand canal house in Amsterdam where, during the Second World War, the exiled German writer Wolfg...
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About the author
Jon Day is a writer, critic and academic. He is the author of Cyclogeography (Notting Hill Editions, 2015) and Homing (John Murray, 2019), which was a book of the year in the Guardian, The Spectator, Daily Telegraph and Observer, and was longlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year award. He is a regular contributor to the London Review of Books, and his essays and reviews have also appeared in the Financial Times, New York Review of Books, Bookforum, n+1, Guardian, The Spectator and many others. He teaches English and creative writing at King's College London.
Jon Day is a writer, critic and academic. He is the author of Cyclogeography (Notting Hill Editions, 2015) and Homing (John Murray, 2019), which was a book of the year in the Guardian, The Spectator, Daily Telegraph and Observer, and was longlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year awa...
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