Part of the issue for me is that while the eight wives of Henry VIII might put many off history, if there is nothing about my/my family’s country of origin, then I simply do not exist. I might even feel ashamed, as clearly my forbearers/ancestors contributed nothing to history, never achieved anything, produced anything, invented anything….

Given the abysmal lack of knowledge of even Eastern European countries/cultures, I was very glad that I had some years of schooling in Budapest after WWII before emigrating. Hence, as you can guess, the retention of my Hungarian (Magyar) name, Marika