The architect Klaus Lehmann loves his wife, Elsa, with a passion that continues throughout their married life, despite periods of separation. Almost half a century after Lehmann’s death in the village of Steerborough, a young woman, Lily, arrives to research his life and work. Poring over Lehmann’s letters to Elsa, Lily pieces together the story of their lives and, alone in her rented cottage by the sea, she begins to sense an absence in her own life.

Inspired by the letters of her grandfather, the architect Ernst Freud, Esther Freud’s novel The Sea House depicts postwar Britain as experienced by a group of German Jewish émigrés. She joins us to discuss the book and the real family history behind her fiction.

This event introduces a series of lunchtime lectures and museum visits that will run throughout October 2022 to mark the centenary of Lucien Freud and explore the complicated life and legacy of the Freud family.

We are proud to host this event in association with Jewish Renaissance.

This online event will be free to attend, but please click here to book your place.