Swanage Literary Festival: Felice Hardy – The Tennis Champion Who Escaped the Nazis

Felice tells this remarkable, moving story of escape and survival.

In 1930, her grandmother, Liesl Herbst, was the Austrian National tennis champion.  In 1939, her grandparents and mother escaped from Nazi occupied Vienna to London. On arrival they were initially stripped of their Austrian passports and rendered stateless aliens, but both Liesl and her daughter Dorli competed at Wimbledon. They remain the only mother and daughter team to play doubles together at Wimbledon. The book also explores the terrible fate of the family they left behind.

It is as much a search for the author’s own identity as for her own children and grandchildren to ensure that their remarkable family history is never lost again.

Tickets £5 (+booking fee)
Day tickets also available at https://themowlem.com/event/swanage-literary-festival-saturday-full-day-ticket/