| Abstract: | On the occasion of Genia Peierls' 70th birthday, on 25th July 1978, her four children, Ronnie, Gaby, Kitty and Jo collected reminiscences from friends across the world. These were presented to Genia on her birthday in an album, and the sentiments expressed in the various contributions demonstrate Genia's extraordinary qualities.1224 She had been the focal point of the Peierls household, but her impact had gone far beyond her own nuclear family, largely as a result of Genia opening up the family residence to colleagues, students and friends from her husband's institute (and beyond). Colleagues who had met at Rudi's institute and Genia's house talked of themselves as a family and called each other cousins.1225 Freeman Dyson recalled the year he spent in the Peierls household in the early 1950s, saying ‘it was a tough year for me and it was a tough year for you. You with two babies and two opinionated teenagers on your hands, me returning from an intoxicating box-office success in America to a cold morning-after in England. During that year you taught me, partly through talking but much more by example, what it means to be a grown up.’1226 Genia was the warm-hearted centre of much of the social life around Peierls' institute at Birmingham and to some extent also at Oxford. She made other people's problems her own, and went about solving them. Some people may have been irritated by her occasionally unwanted concern or interference, but everybody acknowledged that her heart was in the right place… |
