• 1928 - Dora Holzhandler born in Paris on 22nd of March to Polish refugee parents, Sehia and Ruchla. Dora was fostered at a few months old and spent time in Normandy.



• 1933 - Dora is reunited with her mother in Paris.



• 1934 - The Holzhandler family move to Dalston, London.



• 1939 - Evacuated to Norfolk



• 1940 - Returned to London and attended North East London Emergency Secondary School



• 1941 - Moved to Suffolk with Mother where she attended the West Suffolk County School, Bury St Edmunds.



• 1946/48 - Lived in Paris where she studied French literature at the Sorbonne and art at La Grande Chaumiére.



• 1948/50 - Dora returned to London where she attended the Anglo-French Art Centre



• 1950 - Dora married George Swinford on the 11th of September. The birth of their three daughters shortly followed: Amalie (1951), Hepzibah (1956), Hermione (1966).



• 1971/75 - Lived at Allanton, a country house in Dumfries, Scotland.



• 1975/76 - Wintered in St. Ives, Cornwall then moved back to London where she still lives today with George.



• 1980/94 - Extensive traveling abroad brought Dora to places like Thailand, India, New York, Israel, and Finland.
  
  
• 1995 - Death of Athene, Hermione's daughter at age six



• 1996 - Dora visits the opening of the Gallery of Modern Art in Glasgow then to the Tibetan Buddhist Holy Island of the Scottish coast to plant a rose tree in memory of Athene.



• 1997 - Dora Holzhandler by Philip Vann is published by Lund Humphries London.



• 2002 - Dora, with husband George and granddaughters Eve and Tara, travel to Dharamsala, India for an audience with His Holiness The Dalai Lama of Tibet.