Author Judy Langton has published her debut book of poems. Forgotten Eyes features 47 poems, including Lost Years — a moving meditation on her life during the Holocaust as a three-year-old. It describes how she went into hiding, found her mother and lost her father.

On Monday, Ms Langton, 68, who divides her time between Australia and the UK, will be reading from Forgotten Eyes at Poetic Licence, an annual gathering with three other poets: Johannes Kerkhoven, Jean Pestell and Rosanna Taylor, at the Gatehouse in Highgate, north London. She says she has no vivid memory of the war, except the perpetual chaos and fear. “In life there are good and bad bits and I focus on both in my poems.”

Born in Hungary, she emigrated to Australia and graduated from Sydney’s National Institute of Dramatic Art. She has written for The Sydney Morning Herald, The Australian and The Times.