Articles by Sabine Steiner, SRF

Entertainment

How an Englishman lived as a woman in a Swiss cave

It sounds like Hollywood script. Almost 100 years ago, an English intellectual settled in a remote Swiss mountain village - and transformed himself into a woman. Nature reigns supreme in the Blinnental valley in the Swiss canton of Valais. Larch and fir trees cling to the steep, rugged slopes on either side, while a mountain stream rushes below. Between the slopes and river lie small and large rocks that bear witness to countless rockslides. It was in this wild valley in the Goms district that the English intellectual Vincent Donovan settled almost 100 years ago. A wealthy Englishman When Donovan arrived in Reckingen in 1929, two worlds collided, says Ilse Carlen, who has been studying his story intensively for years. On one hand, there were the simple, strictly Catholic mountain folk, and on the other a highly-educated, cultured, well-to-do Englishman. "With his behaviour, his manners and his bowler hat, he stood out in the village," says Carlen. Donovan was drawn to nature. His ...