Now on Kickstarter: the prelaunch page for Mary: A Victorian Life Recovered is live. Follow the campaign →
Helen Parker-Drabble recovers ordinary lives from the traces they leave behind. A former counsellor, she reads family history through what psychology knows about how people are shaped by what happens to them, and what they hand on. Her most recent book, ‘Yet’, was Runner-up for the Alan Ball Award 2025 and Silver Winner in the NFAA Book Awards 2026. She lives in Bristol.
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Series title: Who Do I Think You Were?®
Author of A Victorian’s Inheritance and ‘Yet’: A Story of Triumph over Childhood Separation, Trauma, and Disability
Have you asked, ‘Who Do I Think You Were?®’ of your ancestors?
Uncover the hidden stories of your family’s past and gain insights into your own and your ancestors’ psyche.
A New Approach to Family History
‘My writing offers a blend of:
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- Established psychological research applied to historical evidence
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- Genealogy and family history research
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- Social and local historical context
Discover Your Family’s Psychological Inheritance
My innovative approach can help you:
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- Build empathy for past generations, yourself and living family
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- Understand the mental health challenges your ancestors faced
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- Explore how events and circumstances might have shaped your family’s psychology
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- Gain insights into your own behaviours and patterns
Are you ready to explore who you think your ancestors were? Reading about my family could help you:
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- Discover your family’s psychological past
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- Shed light on your living relatives and
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- Help you understand how your family’s legacy may have shaped who you are.
Featured Book
‘Yet’: A Story of Triumph over Childhood Separation, Trauma, and Disability
“No one believed me. ‘Children couldn’t have been treated like that.’ But we were.”
—Harry Drabble
‘Runner-up, CILIP LSG Alan Ball Award 2025 (Best Hardcopy Publication). Silver Winner, NFAA Book Awards 2026 (Biography and
Memoir). Featured in Who Do You Think You Are? magazine, May 2026.
• Featured in Who Do You Think You Are? Magazine, May 2026
In 1937, aged two and a half, Harry Drabble was diagnosed with bovine tuberculosis of the hip and elbow after drinking unpasteurised milk. Torn from his mother’s arms, he spent three and a half of the next seven years in Sheffield’s King Edward VII Memorial Hospital for Crippled Children, enduring emotional neglect and long stretches of isolation while immobilised in bed. One close relative was allowed to visit, for one hour, once a month.
Harry’s life was defined by a simple yet transformative mantra: ‘I can’t… yet.’ Told he would never work, find love, or support a family, Harry refused to give in to those predictions. He taught himself to read and mastered the violin while living with physical challenges, earned professional qualifications despite limited schooling, and went on to create the loving family he was told was out of reach. This father-daughter collaboration offers a rare glimpse into a forgotten chapter of British medical history, ensuring the forgotten children institutionalised during the early to mid 20th century are seen, heard and remembered. Yet is both a tribute to Harry’s indomitable spirit and a timeless reminder of the power of hope, perseverance, and the word ‘yet.’
Buy a signed copy directly from Helen
Also available from Amazon, Waterstones, bookshops and online retailers.
Books
A Victorian’s Inheritance
See your ancestors in a new way with this enlightening exploration of family, English village life, and psychology.
A facsimile reproduction of a Victorian Recipe Book: A Handwritten Book of Family Receipts started by Mrs C. A. Allott of Sheffield, (England), 1860
Book One of Mary: A Victorian Life Recovered. In 1860 a
Sheffield woman opened a blank notebook, months after her husband sailed for
New Zealand without her. She kept it for fifty-two years. Every page is
reproduced as it survives: handwriting, crossings-out, insertions, stains, and
wear. A second edition, including the loose papers, follows in 2027.
How Key Psychological Theories Can Enrich Our Understanding of Our Ancestors
Consider the profound impact of attachment and adversity on generations of your family through the lens of the Parker family in this 14,000 word article published online in A Special Issue Article From The Online Genealogy Journal “Focus On Family Historians: How Ancestor Research Affects Self-Understanding And Well-Being”.
Latest Articles
Mary: A Victorian Life Recovered
In 1859 a young wife was left behind when her husband sailed for New Zealand. In 1860 she opened a blank notebook. Across three books, Mary: A Victorian Life Recovered reads the more than 280 recipes and household entries she left behind as the record of a life rebuilt after abandonment: a facsimile of the recipe book itself (already published), the biography Neither Wife Nor Widow: The Life of an Abandoned Wife in Victorian England, and a companion volume, Interpreting Mary’s Recipe Book, on the Victorian household that produced it. The prelaunch page is live on Kickstarter now.