The Snake & the Tiger

Ana Lydia was born in the late 1920's in the Fortress Colony of Gibraltar. The eldest daughter of a well-to-do middle-class merchant family, she enjoyed a carefree childhood taking dancing and music classes in a very traditional and conservative home. At sixteen she met Jack, a young Englishman, despite his coming from a different background, she married him in 1949. They flew to Salisbury, Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) taking an eventful eight days. Life in her new home was very different, having to adapt not only to married life with restricted finances but also to a language, English, as Spanish was the principal language used in most Gibraltar homes. Ana relates her adventures and experiences, sometimes sad but always interesting and mainly funny, encountered in the many countries where she accompanied her husband, first in Nairobi, during the MauMau uprising and where, after recuperating from polio, she found herself entertaining the troops under the command of General Sir George Erskine. In Rio de Janeiro where life was dangerously exciting and Macumba abounded, she discovered her potential as a woman and dancer appearing on TV-Tupi. She was presented to visiting President Sukarno of Indonesia but refused to dance for him!. In San Juan, Puerto Rico she introduced President. Kennedy's Physical Education Programme. In mysterious and enticing Lima, Peru, she taught society girls at a convent school in a country under military dictatorship. After two years in London, Ana arrived in Manila just before President Marcos declared martial law. Then finally she went to Hong Kong where she hosted 'Keep Fit with Ana Lydia' on RTV-HK. In fact Ana tells how different cultures and traditions influence her personal life and marriage.