The Secret Life of Dorothy Soames

The Secret Life of Dorothy Soames
Author: Justine Cowan
Publisher: Hachette UK
Total Pages: 276
Release: 2021-01-07
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0349013160

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

A Beautiful Blue Death

A Beautiful Blue Death
Author: Charles Finch
Publisher: Minotaur Books
Total Pages: 340
Release: 2007-06-26
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1429955333

Equal parts Sherlock Holmes and P.G. Wodehouse, Charles Finch's debut mystery A Beautiful Blue Death introduces a wonderfully appealing gentleman detective in Victorian London who investigates crime as a diversion from his life of leisure. Charles Lenox, Victorian gentleman and armchair explorer, likes nothing more than to relax in his private study with a cup of tea, a roaring fire and a good book. But when his lifelong friend Lady Jane asks for his help, Lenox cannot resist the chance to unravel a mystery. Prudence Smith, one of Jane's former servants, is dead of an apparent suicide. But Lenox suspects something far more sinister: murder, by a rare and deadly poison. The grand house where the girl worked is full of suspects, and though Prue had dabbled with the hearts of more than a few men, Lenox is baffled by the motive for the girl's death. When another body turns up during the London season's most fashionable ball, Lenox must untangle a web of loyalties and animosities. Was it jealousy that killed Prudence Smith? Or was it something else entirely? And can Lenox find the answer before the killer strikes again—this time, disturbingly close to home?

Bevelations

Bevelations
Author: Bevy Smith
Publisher: Andy Cohen Books
Total Pages: 256
Release: 2021-01-12
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1250311772

"Bevy knows what's what, and she is the kind of woman you want in your corner. If you don't believe me . . . buy the book." —Whoopi Goldberg "Funny, wise, well-experienced, empathetic, colorful—Bevy brings the spirit of humanity wherever she goes." —Pharrell Williams From the host of the fabulous and popular show Bevelations on SiriusXM’s Radio Andy channel, Bevy Smith’s irreverent and inspiring memoir about learning to live a big, authentic, and unapologetic life—and how you can, too Bevy Smith was living what seemed like a glamorous dream as a fashion advertising executive, blazing a lucrative career for herself in the whitewashed magazine world. She jetsetted to Europe for fashion shows, dined and danced at every hot spot, and enjoyed a mighty roster of lovers. So it came as quite a shock to Bevy when one day, after arriving at her luxury hotel in Milan, she collapsed on the Frette bedsheets and sobbed. Years of rolling with the in-crowd had taken its toll. Her satisfaction with work and life had hit rock bottom. But Bevy could not be defeated, and within minutes (okay, days) she grabbed a notepad and started realizing a truer path—one built on self-reflection and, ultimately, clarity. She figured out how to redirect her life toward meaningful creativity and freedom. In her signature lively and infectious voice (there’s no one like Bevy!), Bevelations candidly shares how she reclaimed her life’s course and shows how we too can manifest our most bodacious dreams. From repossessing her bold childhood nature to becoming her own brand to envisioning her life’s next great destination (which will feature natural hair, important charitable giving, and a midcentury house overlooking the Pacific Ocean), Bevy invites readers along on the route of her personal transformation to reveal how each of us can live our best lives with honesty, joy, and, when we’re in the mood, a killer pair of shoes.

Mrs. Sinclair's Suitcase

Mrs. Sinclair's Suitcase
Author: Louise Walters
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 290
Release: 2015-08-04
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0698155971

A heartbreaking and deeply compelling debut, Mrs. Sinclair’s Suitcase is a compulsive page-turner about thwarted love, dashed hopes, and family secrets—book-club fiction at its best. Roberta, a lonely thirty-four-year-old bibliophile, works at The Old and New Bookshop in England. When she finds a letter inside her centenarian grandmother’s battered old suitcase that hints at a dark secret, her understanding of her family’s history is completely upturned. Running alongside Roberta’s narrative is that of her grandmother, Dorothy, as a forty-year-old childless woman desperate for motherhood during the early years of World War II. After a chance encounter with a Polish war pilot, Dorothy believes she’s finally found happiness, but must instead make an unthinkable decision whose consequences forever change the framework of her family. The parallel stories of Roberta and Dorothy unravel over the course of eighty years as they both make their own ways through secrets, lies, sacrifices, and love. Utterly absorbing, Mrs. Sinclair’s Suitcase is a spellbinding tale of two worlds, one shattered by secrets and the other by the truth.

All My Lies Are True

All My Lies Are True
Author: Dorothy Koomson
Publisher: Review
Total Pages: 380
Release: 2020-07-09
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1472260430

'This is devastatingly good' Heat From the bestselling author of The Ice Cream Girls comes a gripping emotional thriller of love and obsession and the nature of coercive control. 'The author plays a blinder' says the Sun. Verity is telling lies... And that's why she's about to be arrested for attempted murder. Serena has been lying for years. . . And that may have driven her daughter, Verity, to do something unthinkable... Poppy's lies have come back to haunt her . . . So will her quest for the truth hurt everyone she loves? Everyone lies. But whose lies are going to end in tragedy? Praise for Dorothy Koomson: 'If you only do one thing this weekend, read this book. . . utterly brilliant' Sun 'Immediately gripping and relentlessly intense' Heat 'An instantly involving pschological thriller' Telegraph 'Koomson just gets better and better' Woman & Home

Wild Game

Wild Game
Author: Adrienne Brodeur
Publisher: Harper
Total Pages: 255
Release: 2019
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1328519031

On a hot July night on Cape Cod, at the age of 14, Brodeur became a confidante to her mother's affair with her husband's closest friend. Malabar came to rely on her daughter to help, but when the affair had calamitous consequences for everyone involved, Brodeau was driven into a precarious marriage of her own, and then into a deep depression. In her memoir she examines how the people close to us can break our hearts simply because they have access to them, and the lies we tell in order to justify the choices we make. -- adapted from jacket

Nobody's Child

Nobody's Child
Author: Kate Adie
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
Total Pages: 380
Release: 2009-04-16
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1848943601

'Witty, compelling and never mawkish' Observer 'Written with a sure touch . . . Adie has a natural understanding of what it is like to be unsure of your origins' Sunday Telegraph 'A cracker of a subject . . . (Adie) writes with an engaging, forthright immediacy' New Statesman * * * * * * Bestselling author and BBC reporter Kate Adie writes vividly, inspiringly and from many fascinating perspectives about what it means to be an abandoned child. What's your name? Where were you born? What is your date of birth? Simple questions that we are asked throughout our life - but what if you didn't know the answers? Journalist and presenter of BBC Radio 4's From Our Own Correspondent Kate Adie uncovers the extraordinary, moving and inspiring stories of just such children - without mother or father, any knowledge of who they might be, or even a name to call their own. With a curiosity inspired by her own circumstances as an adopted child, Kate shows how the most remarkable adults have survived the experience of abandonment. From every perspective Kate Adie brings us a personal, moving and fascinating insight into the very toughest of childhood experiences - and shows what makes us who we really are.

The Secrets We Left Behind

The Secrets We Left Behind
Author: Susan Elliot Wright
Publisher: Skyhorse
Total Pages: 297
Release: 2015-05-05
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1632209942

It was a summer of love, and a summer of secrets. She has built a good life: a husband who adores her, a daughter she is fiercely proud of, a home with warmth and love at its heart. But things were not always so good, and the truth is that she has done things she can never admit. Then one evening a phone call comes out of the blue. It is a voice from long ago, a man from a past that she has tried so hard to hide. He knows who she really is and what she has done. Now he is dying and he gives her an ultimatum: either she tells the truth, or he will. And so we are taken back to that long hot summer of 1976 to a house by the sea on the southern coast of England, where her story begins and where the truth will be revealed. . . . Told in dual narratives that jump back and forth in time, Elliot Wright has crafted a story with secrets that unfold through the very last page. Compelling, immersive, and thoroughly surprising, The Secrets We Left Behind is a stunning follow up to the author’s acclaimed UK debut The Things We Never Said. Skyhorse Publishing, as well as our Arcade, Yucca, and Good Books imprints, are proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in fiction—novels, novellas, political and medical thrillers, comedy, satire, historical fiction, romance, erotic and love stories, mystery, classic literature, folklore and mythology, literary classics including Shakespeare, Dumas, Wilde, Cather, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.

Hereditary Genius

Hereditary Genius
Author: Sir Francis Galton
Publisher:
Total Pages: 416
Release: 1870
Genre: Genius
ISBN: