It takes a brave journalist to report from a war zone, but the families they leave behind often feel neglected by their newsrooms. This book is a true story about what it is like to be married to a war reporter and what it is like to have one for a dad. It's about being five-years old and wondering why Daddy s boots are covered in mud from a mass grave and who was in it. It's about sitting on the sofa at home and watching cruise missiles rain down on your father's head - then eating your baked beans and doing your homework. 

It's the story of five kids growing up in the post-1989 Europe and trying to work out why some countries supermarket shelves are empty and others groan with hundreds of different loo cleaners. How do they come to terms with the past, the present and the future, especially when the ghosts of Auschwitz come close to home and the scars of war are not easy to heal? And how do they work out who they are when their roots are scattered across the continent. What shall I be today: British, French, Jewish, Irish Catholic, English Protestant or how about Serbian or even Romanian? 

Rosie Whitehouse had a successful career at the BBC until she became a mum. She then spent five years as a housewife in the war-torn Balkans with her husband Tim Judah. Back in London she continued to develop her ironing skills while she built a new career as a freelance journalist.

Rosie is a parenting journalist and mother of five. She is also one of the UK’s leading experts on family travel. Her style is practical, relaxed and humorous.  

She has written widely on family matters and travelling with children for The Sunday Telegraph, The Independent, The Guardian, The Daily Mail, Sunday Express, Family Circle, The Economist, Kids Out, Parentwise, Living France, Image and the websites B4Baby.com and Raisingkids.co.uk.