A Time To Speak, by Helen Lewis. Blackstaff Press; £8.99

HELEN LEWIS’ carefully wrought account of the European Jewish experience from the mid-1930s through to the late ’40s is so much more than mere memoir. In A Time To Speak, and with a quite astonishing dispassion, Miss Lewis has laid out a chronology of her life that reads like nothing less than a descent into hell.

The initial dread came slowly and the clouds took their time in gathering, but by early 1939 Prague had fallen and everything was in disarray. Little by little, restrictions were put in place.

Jews were limited in their freedom of movement and had to obey a strict curfew. Radios were outlawed, items of value confiscated. Family pets, dogs, cats, hamsters, caged birds were taken. The wearing of yellow stars was implemented.