OLD GIRLS

Travels in Blood and Honey, and from the Malvern Hills to Kosovo's Accursed Mountains

One of the prefects who was looking after me at the buffet supper asked politely ‘so when did you leave Malvern?' I told her it had been in 1990 and she nodded apologetically, ‘OK, so before I was born'.

It's funny how going back to a place from your past can make you feel simultaneously very old and very young. Because although it was a prefect's lifetime ago that I was at Malvern, and 15 years since I'd even visited, once I walked back into the York Hall, it was as if I was a teenager again. It's compounded by the fact that all the staff seem extraordinarily unaged (they always said there was something in that water). It was lovely to see Mrs Melhuish and Mrs Pallett and Mrs Rambridge, Mrs King, Dr Payne (sorry, Linde, Suki, Elisabeth, Jane, Valerie, though it still doesn't feel right to call them that) and others, all looking elegant and youthful.

I live in Kosovo, a country fringed by the so-called ‘Accursed Mountains', but I was back in Malvern to talk about my book, Travels in Blood and Honey; becoming a beekeeper in Kosovo, which came out this summer, and also about The Ideas Partnership (http://www.theideaspartnership.org/), the charity we've set up in Kosovo working on education, environmental and cultural heritage projects. What we started two years ago with funds from our own pockets as a three-man band (me, my partner, Rob, and our Kosovan friend, Ardi) has now expanded to a team of 30 volunteers from 12 countries. Most recently we have been working with a Roma community in Kosovo, getting 56 children into school (see http://www.gettinggjelanetoschool.wordpress.com/ for the full story) and supporting their families with income-generating projects so that they don't feel the need to rely on their children to work, and can let them continue their education.

After the talk a series of sixth-formers came up to talk to me about the possibility of coming out to work with our charity in their gap year or during a school holiday, and others wanted to discuss fundraising or sponsorship to help our work. It's been a strange journey for me from being a Malvern pupil to being a Kosovan beekeeper, and it was even stranger to make the journey back again. But the most exciting part of the evening was the idea that there might be others who might be interested in making a similar journey. We'll look forward to welcoming other Malvern migrants to the Balkans.

‘A sheer delight; a beguiling, bittersweet story of a lively love affair with a traditional world, as ancient as apiculture, in transition to new nationhood' (The Times)

Elizabeth's book, Travels in Blood and Honey; becoming a beekeeper in the Balkans is out now with Signal Books.

Elizabeth with Trish Woodhouse, the Headmistress	With Jess Wright and Rosie Baker, Joint Head Girls
With Jane King and Val Payne	With Linde Melhuish
With Suki Pallett and Mary Valpy	Elizabeth, a beekeeper in Kosovo
Our first class of children, now in school	Seed planting activity with Roma children
Our soap-making training for a Roma women's small business	Vehbi who didn't have shoes to go to school