History of Ceylon Tea

My Second Heart, a 253-page memoir written by Vicki Vanden Driesen (née Blazé) is the story of her life growing up in post-colonial Ceylon as well as the story of her family going back many generations. Vicki draws on treasured family documents and a range of other sources including her own memories, to introduce the reader to the Blazé family and the tea planting world into which she was born. Her love of that world and her sadness in leaving it are poignant but there is also much happiness and humour in this personal narrative. My Second Heart reflects Vicki’s passion for her family’s history and her nostalgia for a world that has past, and speaks evocatively to future generations about the lives and times of her ancestors.