A Long Look Back
About


About the Author

Shortly before the two-month long siege of Budapest at the turn of 1944-45, circumstances separated Tom Tottis, at the age of ten, from his parents. He could not help but witness the horrors of the Nazi regime and the actual battle for Budapest.

After that Tom grew up enduring the tyranny of the so-called 'socialist' system, leading to the totally unplanned Hungarian uprising in 1956.

The early part of the book, from 1921 - 1939, is based on the numerous stories and anecdotes his mother Julia told him, the rest are his own actual experiences.
 
Tom felt compelled to write this story because of its historical content. Until this day the West knows very little of what actually happened in the early 1940s and after 1945 to countries and people who finished up behind the Iron Curtain (apart from the tragedy of the Warsaw ghetto). People in other central European countries who lived through and experienced those events are now very thin on the ground.

The book also portrays in fine detail the emotional problems a family cannot escape when a disturbed member is causing torment and suffering.

Arriving at the age of 21 to Great Britain as a refugee, in December 1956, Tom set about establishing an existence through hard work. His resolution and his stamina rewarded him with managerial positions in industry for over two decades before he retired at the age of 60.


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"I think the book is written in a unique style that makes it read almost as if you are watching it on film, and as such really impacted on the emotions.
It is one of the few books that I have read that have truly made me a better person for reading."
R. Dennis
Tom, as he is today.
Tom, aged nine. One year later he was separated from his parents during the siege of Budapest.