“The nuns told me my father would burn forever”

When the moment to put pen to paper and start writing came for Lucia Graves, it came “naturally, but, that is not to say easily.” Lucia Graves, the only daughter of Robert Graves' second marriage, is currently in Majorca and Spain promoting her second book Mujer desconocida or Woman Unknown in the original English version and the autobiography has been well received by the critics in both countries. Graves however explains that the book is “not about me, but it is a book about Spain, it could have been called an anonymous woman. “The book is focused on Spanish women and how they have blossomed over the years since the 40*s and 50*s, and through the transition, but it is also a journey of self discovery and a look at the two cultures in which I have lived, spending my life first in Majorca and Spain and then England.” “Having lived in both countries and cultures, I feel it has given me a perspective to analyse what is happening,” she says. The book is a personal memoir and the strong quiet voice of Lucia Graves has prompted some critics to claim the book will become a classic. She explains that growing up in Majorca, she first came to the island in 1946 after being born in Devon, and not being a Catholic in the late 40*s and early 50*s would have been problematic for anybody, but the sometimes “controversial” opinions expressed about religion and God by her father, far from impressed the nuns at her local school and being warned that her father would “burn forever” had a strong impact on the little girl who had a unique if not idyllic childhood in Deya.