A RETIRED doctor has published a family memoir that tells the story of life in three countries over more than a century.

Lindy Cartner’s book And the Twain Shall Meet recounts the experiences of three generations between 1870 and 1977.

It tells the author’s story as a female physician, firstly in India and later in the North-East of England.

Dr Cartner began writing her extraordinary memoir with no intention of seeing it published.

The idea for the book was spawned in 1997 from a desire to tell the story of her family’s rich history to her then recently-born triplet grandchildren.

“These children would grow up knowing very little about even their fairly immediate ancestry,” she said.

“Anything they would learn would be from me, which would be forgotten quite soon.”

A product of 14 years’ writing, the book provides striking insight into changing attitudes towards women and race in India and the UK, drawing contrasts between the author’s generation and her mother’s.

Dr Cartner said it was never her intention to focus on these themes, but suggests that they were unavoidable when writing about a life such as her own.

She said: “When I set out to write the book the aim wasn’t really to tackle these issues. I told it as it was and these issues came up.

“In the period I lived through these were issues.”

Dr Cartner retired from her job as a consultant haematologist in 1997 and now lives in Durham in the house she shared with her late husband.