Mother Tongues

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Escaping dog-mess parks and conversations about childcare, Helena Drysdale and her husband Richard rented out their South London house and embarked on an epic eighteen-month journey across Europe. With them went their two infant daughters, Tallulah and Xanthe. They had no plans but they did have a goal; to probe the secrets of Western Europe's indigenous tribes. Over seven seasons Helena Drysdale and her family travelled from the Mediterranean to the Arctic, from the Atlantic to the Aegean. By living in a van 'on location' rather than flying in and out like foreign correspondents, the family got to know people, visited their homes, and through them explored the very basis of the cultures inhabiting Europe's ambiguous fringe. What drives the Basques' fight for independence? Why are the Corsicans so volatile and the Frisians so lonesome? Who are the Sami? The Alanders? The Ladin? Mother Tongues reveals the struggles of these peoples to stave off extinction in an increasingly homogenized world. This delves not only into the highs and lows of peripatetic family life, but digs deeper into the very nature of the powerful bond between language and identity that affects us all, whether we know it or not.