BRUNI DE LA MOTTE grew up in the German Democratic Republic, before marrying John Green and moving to the UK in 1988. The following year her country disappeared and was incorporated into a united Germany.She was born in a small Thuringian village, where she went to school before going to Potsdam university, where she read English and Russian. She was a bright and passionate student, and was taught, among others, by British comrade Marguerite Morgan, and mentored by Professor Leonard Goldstein, a refugee from McCarthyism in the USA.