Description
Book Synopsis'Secrets Never to be Told’ is an extraordinary story, compellingly told, which unravels a century and a half of family secrets. It reveals how being born illegitimate shaped the lives of two women – one of them, the author. Starting with a letter revealing a mystery inheritance, the author goes on a five-year quest taking her from Victorian Cambridge to modern Vancouver. She uncovers how her cousin Jessie emigrated to Canada, one of thousands of female domestic servants exported as ‘surplus’ women before the First World War. Woven alongside the contemporary detective investigation on the trail of one immigrant’s untold story, is that of the author’s strange 1960s childhood of social isolation in a Midlands city, obsessed with a world seen through TV - and with the Beatles.
Table of ContentsContents List of Illustrations 13 Prologue 15 Chapter One 29 Chapter Two 48 Chapter Three 64 Chapter Four 83 Chapter Five 100 Chapter Six 129 Chapter Seven 149 Chapter Eight 163 Chapter Nine 181 Chapter Ten 198 Chapter Eleven 217 Chapter Twelve 237 Chapter Thirteen 255 Chapter Fourteen 275 Chapter Fifteen 295 APPENDIX Acknowledgements 315
