Across the Broken Years

A Legacy of Survival
Beaten each week at a Catholic boarding school, Kit Sadgrove grew up in a world ruled by fear and silence. But this remarkable memoir goes far beyond the school gates. Woven through his own harrowing yet hopeful story is the tale of his ancestors—lives marked by hardship, resilience, and astonishing adventure.

Step into the shadows of a Victorian workhouse, where Sadgrove’s great-great-grandmother clung to life while burying two children there. Sail into battle during the Napoleonic Wars with a 14-year-old recruit. Stand on the boggy soil where his ancestors eked out a living – and the aristocratic ballrooms of Dublin where they finally danced. Follow his mother, as she flees the advancing Nazis, and Victor, his father, as he takes the surrender of the German forces in WWII.

From bomb-making and scrubbing toilets on North Sea rigs to riding freight trains across America, Sadgrove’s life is anything but ordinary. Spanning 300 years, this gripping memoir is part family saga, part personal reckoning—and every word of it a true story.