Royal Roots
By Patricia Wynn Brown
“Is it possible for a book to be both harrowing and hilarious? When it is also filled with heart, as Patricia Wynn Brown's memoir is, the answer is yes. Brown is an engaging writer who addresses the reader like a long-lost friend, an accomplished storyteller with the flair of her Irish ancestors, and a dogged researcher who had the nerve to uncover a family secret no one else would touch. I was filled with admiration for her optimism, humor and persistence. Read it and cry. Read it and laugh. Read it and be uplifted.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Patricia Wynn Brown
Patricia Wynn Brown is an awarding-winning writer and the author of three books. Her most recent is Royal Roots: Reimagining a Life Through Humor, a Castle, and the US Navy. She was a humor columnist for eight years and is a sought-after speaker for her presentation performances that combine poignancy, humor, reflection, and nostalgia.
She sees her mission in life as raising spirits, spreading laughter, and touching hearts, minds, and souls. As one audience member put it, “She is a light in a dark world and an encouragement to those who desperately need it most.”
Patricia is a three-time winner of the James Thurber Writing Contest. She is a frequent emcee, and has made numerous interview appearances on television and on NPR stations. Her most recent book, Royal Roots, necessitated a research visit to the Naval Station Norfolk, where the base commander, Capt. Janet Days, awarded her family a Commander Coin for her father’s service during WWII.
Author Interview
Why write the book?
Storytelling and humor have helped me deal with life’s challenges, so I thought putting my life stories into a memoir would help others, too. Shame and trauma can be debilitating. Through my stories, perception can be changed: a new way of looking at the world around us, a healthier way.
Who is the audience?
Anyone who loves memoirs, those who wish to better their own and their family’s mental health, Baby Boomers (the book is filled with pop culture of the 1950s and 1960s), military personnel and their families, anyone who attended Catholic School in postwar America, and mental health professionals.
The story of your father’s WWII PTSD is a tragic one. Will the reader just be depressed by it all?
There were 160 “Early Royal Readers” of the initial stages of the manuscript and many have said that though our family circumstances were so trying and often sad, the telling of the specifics in context of life — history and adding the humorous side of thing — lifts the reader.
Gretchen, an Early Royal Reader, said, “Boy, oh boy! This book speaks to anyone who had a family secret.” And Early Reader Betsy wrote, “There’s a lot of heartbreak here but also so much humor. If this was one of my book club books, I’d have stayed with it till I was done with the book in one sitting.”
What was it like having your homelife as a secret and now exposing it?
To live with the tragedies resulting from mental illness and not being able to discuss it with anyone, and to in fact, act like it is not happening is a strain and a drain on a person. It has helped greatly to write the story of our family and my growing up. What makes this book even more powerful for me personally is actually finding out through the Freedom of Information Act and the VA medical records, what actually happened to Dad in the war. Until writing the memoir all we knew was “there was some explosion.”
Do you love your father even though life was very difficult with him?
Yes I do. I rebelled against the chaos and pain growing up. It hurt so much that he could not be the Dad I wanted him to be. Through the research for this book, I now understand why he could not live up to normal standards. There is redemption in that, for both of us.
