The Secret Life of Dorothy Soames

A gripping memoir and revelatory investigation into the history of the Foundling Hospital and one girl who grew up in its care - the author's own mother.

The true story of a foundling.
'Extraordinary ... A fascinating, moving book: part history of the Foundling Hospital and the development of child psychology, part Cowan's own story, and part that of Cowan's mother' LUCY SCHOLES, TELEGRAPH

Growing up in a wealthy enclave outside San Francisco, Justine Cowan's life seems idyllic. But her mother's unpredictable temper drives Justine from home the moment she is old enough to escape. It is only after her mother dies that she finds herself pulling at the threads of a story half-told - her mother's upbringing in London's Foundling Hospital. Haunted by this secret history, Justine travels across the sea and deep into the past to discover the girl her mother once was.

Here, with the vividness of a true storyteller, she pieces together her mother's childhood alongside the history of the Foundling Hospital: from its idealistic beginnings in the eighteenth century, how it influenced some of England's greatest creative minds - from Handel to Dickens, its shocking approach to childcare and how it survived the Blitz only to close after the Second World War.

This was the environment that shaped a young girl then known as Dorothy Soames, who was left behind by a mother forced by stigma and shame to give up her child; who withstood years of physical and emotional abuse, dreaming of escape as German bombers circled the skies, unaware all along that her own mother was fighting to get her back.
The Secret Life of Dorothy Soames **is a gripping memoir and revelatory investigation into the history of the Foundling Hospital and one girl who grew up in its care - the author's own mother.**

Praise for The Secret Life of Dorothy Soames:

*'As a social history of the Foundling Hospital, this is a fascinating read' SUNDAY TIMES*

'Page-turning and profoundly moving' VIRGINIA NICHOLSON
'Part-memoir, part-detective story, The Secret Life Of Dorothy Soames will break your heart then piece it back together again... Simultaneously exploring her mother's story of escape and the history of the Foundling Hospital, this is an unforgettable read' STYLIST

'A gripping true story' CHRISTINA BAKER KLINE, bestselling author of ORPHAN TRAIN**

'Breathtaking' ADRIENNE BRODEUR, bestselling author of WILD GAME

In this moving story, Cowan painfully recalls the effect her mother's volatility had on her childhood in California, and how it led to estrangement in adulthood as her legal career developed and she left her mother behind. Yet, despite their broken relationship, upon Eileen's death Cowan found herself drawn to discovering her mother's past: a history that had remained entirely hidden to her until she read Eileen's memoir, which she had previously refused to open . . . This is a beautifully written and tender account of how a daughter came to a late understanding of her mother, and how she began to heal the wounds of all that had gone before

Autorentext
For more than two decades, lawyer Justine Cowan has advocated for the voiceless, challenging some of America's most powerful interests exposing wrongdoing in governments and corporations at all levels. The cases she has been involved in have been reported in The New York Times, Vanity Fair, CNN, Politico, Slate, The Hill and almost all other major news outlets. Justine received her undergraduate degree from UC Berkeley and her law degree with honors from Duke Law School where she was on the Editorial Board of the Duke Law Journal. http://www.justinecowan.com/

Klappentext

'An affecting family mystery . . . Fascinating' Sunday Times

London. A woman stands before a panel of governors and begs them to take her child and save her from disgrace.

San Francisco. Decades later, a teenage girl finds her glamorous mother sitting alone in the dark, scribbling a name she has never seen before: Dorothy Soames.

Atlanta. The daughter, now a young woman, receives a package revealing a family secret that stretches back to World War II and beyond into the dark corridors of The Foundling Hospital.

Take this remarkable trans-Atlantic journey alongside Justine Cowan as she pieces together clues from the past and uncovers her mother's story - of a girl who bravely withstood years of abuse and who dreamed of escape as German bombers rained death from the skies.

'Unforgettable' Stylist

'A fascinating, moving book: part history of the Foundling Hospital and the development of child psychology, part Cowan's own story, and part that of Cowan's mother' Daily Telegraph

'A beautifully written and tender account of how a daughter came to a late understanding of her mother' New Statesman