Family Secrets The Things We Tried to Hide Synopsis
On a Liverpool railway platform a heartbroken mother hands over her eight-year-old illegitimate son for adoption...A vicar brings to his bank vault a diary - sewed up in calico, wrapped in parchment - that chronicles his longing for other men...The one-year-old daughter committed to an institution and barely visited or referred to by her family ever again...In Family Secrets Deborah Cohen explores the extraordinary choices British families made in the past to protect their good name. Whether it is hiding an adopted son's origins or the tangled attempts to prevent a divorce, Family Secrets exposes how we dealt with our shame - publicly and in our hearts.
'A well-researched, timely and absorbing book, it challenges many of our prejudices about how our immediate ancestors thought, and invites us to enquire more closely into how and when and why families keep secrets and guard their privacy.' -- Hilary Mantel
'A 'book of marvels'. What marks out Family Secrets as an important book is not so much its breadth as its depth ... the result is a clear sighted investigation into what our forebears felt was private, and what they kept secret.' -- Kathryn Hughes Guardian
'Scrupulous research with cool analysis and a humane intelligence' - Financial Times
'Fascinating reading' - The Scotsman
'A fact-packed and fascinating history of secret-keeping' - Evening Standard
