Join the online conference: “Circular Economy: sustainability and new jobs for the textile industry”

Dame Stephanie Shirley left Vienna in 1939 in something of a rush. Clutching just a few belongings, she was one of 10,000 or so Jewish children whisked away from Adolf Hitler’s impending Holocaust aboard the Kindertransport trains to a new life in Britain.  More than 80 years later we are talking over the phone about what happened next – we were due to meet in person at her home in Henley-on-Thames, but Omicron put paid to that. A fortuitous decision as it turns out. I test positive a few days later and catching Covid-19 from me would not have been much of a footnote to such an extraordinary life.