Upcoming Guest Speaker
Tuesday July 14th, 2026 -11am to 12noon
Berry Hall, behind the Tramshed, Nth Narrabeen
Our guest speaker for July will be Elisabeth Storrs:
I’ve always had a great love for history and myths after I was given a copy of E.M Berens’ Myths and Legends as a child that was aged over 100 years old. Decades later, my obsession lay with the ancient Etruscans but now I’m absorbed with Trojan treasure and twisted Germanic history. I live in Sydney with my husband in a house surrounded by jacarandas. My two sons have long flown the nest. A former lawyer, I’m proud to be the founder of the Historical Novel Society Australasia and the $155,000 ARA Historical Novel Prize. I’m also a member of the History Girls.
ABOUT THE NOVEL
A heartrending historical fiction (based on a true story) of a young woman caught in the machinations of the Third Reich and in the web of a regime-compliant family. The novel is meticulously researched and emotionally resonant, sure to delight readers who love a hearty feast of history in their fiction.WWII Berlin.
Freyja Bremer, a patriotic museum assistant, marries Kaspar Voigt, an ambitious SS scholar, to protect her father. Yet she is unaware her husband is instrumental in Himmler’s twisted quest for Aryan supremacy.
As she strives to safeguard the priceless Priam’s Treasure from air raids, Freyja falls in love with Darien Lessing, an archaeologist who exposes the moral decay beneath the Regime’s myths. Her awakening drives her into perilous resistance – aiding a Jewish doctor and his wife, Darien’s sister – while uncovering Kaspar’s role in the SS’s darkest programmes, which subvert history to justify invasion, abduction and murder.
As Berlin collapses into chaos and bloodshed, Freyja, caught between duty, deception and desire, must risk everything to preserve truth in a world built on lies.
A heartbreaking yet triumphant love story, Fables & Lies shines light on lesser-known aspects of the Nazi Regime. It gives voice to the complex moral struggles of German women, the forgotten resistance of Gentiles married to Jews, the dangers of contested history, the evils of Himmler’s racial studies programme and the unsung bravery of German museum curators who saved their nation’s treasures.
