I never said goodbye
Subtitle: a mother's memoir of love and loss inside Saddam's regime
By: Pauline Knowles-Samarraie with Karen O'Brien
Contributors: O'Brien, Karen
Publisher: Viking
Published: 2007
Place of publication: Camberwell, Vic
Language: eng
Number of pages: 255
ISBN-13: 9780670071548
Subjects: Victims of state-sponsored terrorism; Biography; Family; Social conditions; British; History
Description: Pauline Knowles is a young nurse in Manchester when she meets Munem Samarraie, a handsome Iraqi studying in the UK. They fall in love and soon enough are married and have a baby boy, although Pauline knows that their future lies in Iraq, where Munem is obliged to return to work to repay the government for his overseas studies. But Baghdad in the 1960s is a very cool place to live. There is a vibrant expat community and Pauline finds herself working for the English language radio station and enjoying a great social life. Munem's career within the oil ministry is progressing well and their young son Mazin is happy with his new life. The only strain on their marriage is Munem's family, who cannot bring themselves to accept this Englishwoman as one of them.