In Search of a Past

by Ronald Fraser

Ronald Fraser, the internationally renowned oral historian, turns his attention to his own origins in this remarkable memoir. In Search of a Past gathers the recollections of the servants who worked at the manor house outside London where Fraser grew up. It was the place where his parents—one American, the other Scottish—learned to embrace the lifestyle of the idle local gentry. Fraser paints a vivid picture of a vanished interwar world. Sensitively recorded, the words of his family’s former employees capture the texture of English “county” life as seen from below, woven into a background of their personal lives, their work and the social antagonisms they experienced.

Beneath their stories, however, the author glimpses another unspoken narrative—that of his own childhood. He submits to a course of psychoanalysis and delves into a past riven by confusing emotions and conflicting class allegiances. The result is an innovative, honest, and beautifully written account of the search for lost time, one that defies literary categorization.

216 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1984

About the author

Ronald Angus Fraser (9 December 1930 – 10 February 2012) was a British historian noted for his oral histories and in particular for Blood Of Spain: An Oral History of the Spanish Civil War, his oral history of the Spanish Civil War.

Born in Hamburg to an upper-middle class British father and wealthy American mother, Fraser was educated at boarding school in England and the USA and undertook further studies in Switzerland and France. He chronicled his upbringing in his oral history In Search of a Past (1984), in which interviews with the servants at his family's Berkshire country house served as a counterpoint to his own memories. Fraser spent five years as a correspondent with Reuters in Brussels, The Hague and London before moving to Spain in 1957 to become a full-time writer.

Fraser was one of the pioneers of oral history in the 1960s and '70s, most notably with In Hiding: The Life of Manuel Cortes: The Life of Manuel Cortes (1972) and Blood Of Spain: An Oral History of the Spanish Civil War (1979). His book Napoleon's Cursed War: Popular Resistance in the Spanish Peninsular War, 1808-1814 (2008) applied his experience of oral history to traditional archival sources.

Fraser's friendship with André Gorz led to his involvement with the New Left Review from the early 1960s. He was a lifelong socialist and at his death a senior member of the New Left Trust. He was a founder of New Left Books, the parent company of publisher Verso Books.

Reviews

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

“The ego is a graveyard scattered with the headstones of lost objects”
Ronald Fraser was a notable oral historian, particularly in relation to his adopted Spain and the Civil War. This offering is an analysis of his own past. He was brought up in a Country Manor in Berkshire and had a far from idyllic childhood. For this book he went back to the area and interviewed as many of the old servants and workers that he could find and interviewed them (this was in the late 1970s and early 80s). He did this in conjunction with psychoanalysis and there is a good deal of information about the analysis in the book. Fraser was born in Germany and moved to the Home Counties when he was three with his wealthy American mother and Scots father. They pretty much lived the life of the idle rich and Fraser was primarily brought up by a nanny.
Fraser provides a picture of what is now a lost world and looks at the lives of the servants, groom and gardeners as well as his own. His subjects here are his own self and the class system. Fraser was a socialist and very involved with the New Left Review for several decades. There is a compelling picture of dependency and paternalism along with the minutiae of class distinction. This leads to a more interesting portrait and characterisation of a particular house.
The psychoanalysis seems to have been primarily Freudian, which makes for an interesting juxtaposition of Marx and Freud. Fraser says he had the
“aim of combining two different modes of enquiry – oral history and psychoanalysis – to uncover the past in as many of its layers as possible.”
Fraser is not only looking for a voyage of inner discovery, but also a “voyage into the social past”. Fraser does recognise the problems with analysis:
“Analysis is more limiting because it recreates the past only in the forms in which it was internalised or repressed”
Combining oral history and psychoanalysis isn’t necessarily an obvious connection, so there is an element of experiment, and obviously the title itself is a reference to Proust. Fraser makes clear he isn’t trying to discover his past. He’s learning about different perceptions of it from the family servants. He’s also trying to understand the split he perceives in himself. Contradiction is central. He had a second mother, his nanny Ilse, who was effectively his first mother as he spent most time with her. Fraser also found a second father in the form of Bert, the gardener, who taught him a great deal about life. His own father was not interested in his child
“until he can go out shooting with me”
Fraser speaks about rubbing out the past and preserving it:
“The aims seem contradictory, don’t they? But they’re the same. I kept the past alive out of a desire for revenge. One day I would write it – and them – off the face of the earth”
He’s speaking of his parents.
It’s an interesting account and an unusual perspective. At times the psychoanalysis can be a little irritating, but it’s worth the effort and the accounts of life in a Manor House in the 1930s is interesting.

[Diane · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am very interested in oral histories and particularly like hearing how different people view the same event or situation. (This is especially true for the very different perspectives of childhood events from my adult children). I liked Fraser’s approach of talking to the servants, although I wonder if they were truly willing to say what they thought. I remember learning about the former black slaves who were interviewed during the Depression, and that white interviewers did not get the real stories. But, I still like the idea. I was also intrigued that talking with people about his family brought out Fraser’s anxieties. Being an adult means overcoming our childhood, however good it may have been.

[Betty · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ronald Fraser, known for his oral histories, is both subject and object in this kaleidoscopic reconstruction of his childhood. The book reads as a collections of edited bits from his interviews with the manor staff, his notes from sessions with his psychiatrist, conversations with his brother and father, and personal recollections. He structures it as a bit of a detective story, though I would have like a bit more closure on his mother's life after the war. An interesting proposition for a book, but difficult to parse. If you like straight-forward narratives, this book is not for you.

[Suzie · Rating 4 out of 5]

i am really loving this book. it is so beautifully written. a fascinating insight into the complexities of human emotions, early childhood experiences influencing our day to day response to life. not written as a straight A-Z of occurrences, delving into physcoanalysis and obliquely tells a story of the class system in England. One mans personal journey to understand how life has shaped him.

[Kathleen Flynn]

I found this book on a stoop some time ago and picked it up, thinking that I was familiar with the author, and finally got around to reading it on a vacation. Now that I am home and looking at Goodreads, I realize I was wrong. It was Ronald Blythe, author of The View in Winter, that I was thinking of. Two older British gents named Ronald, both doing oral histories -- an understandable mistake.

Sadly, Blythe's book was by far the more enjoyable read, though didn't exactly dislike In Search of a Past.. An account of a man born around 1930 into a wealthy and cosmopolitan setting (connected to Germany, America, Scotland and England) seeking to excavate his unhappy childhood by interviewing the servants at his childhood home and undergoing Freudian analysis. The book integrates the words of the servants and the accounts of sessions with his therapist.

The moldy whiff of privilege and a vanished world gave it all a certain gruesome fascination, let's say. It felt strange and self-indulgent. Freudian analysis?!

Actually, the capstone was really the introduction, in which the author described living in a village in southern Spain in his late 20s attempting to be a novelist ... having been left able to live without working, though not lavishly, by the death of his mother... having a chance meeting with a passing Frenchman who turns out to have written a book the author admired very much...through this chance encounter making the acquaintance of major French leftists and becoming something of a Marxist... as one does.

I guess I feel annoyed with the writer for having such a privileged start in life and yet feeling himself so unhappy? Yet it's not like he doesn't understand himself that this is ridiculous, at least on some level.

[Lorraine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not yor typical memoir; rather an interesting search within oneself. The author delves into interviews with those who worked at the Manor house where he spent much of his childhood interspersed with reflections on his time spent in psychotherapy. I found it very interesting, but I could see where it might be confusing for some readers.

[Victoria · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short fascinating book by British historian of Spain. He’s has done an oral history of Britain in the 1930s by interviewing the servants in his family home 40 years later and intertwining this with his own long psychoanalysis.

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75⭐️

[Tc Ayça · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book started slow for me, but grabbed me by my childhood as I got into he pages... Exceptionally candid, very truthful...very illuminating <3 A great psychological journey, much enjoyed...