Family Secrets

byDeborah Cohen

The Things We Tried to Hide

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On a Liverpool railway platform a heartbroken mother hands over her eight-year-old illegitimate son for adoption . . .

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

About Deborah Cohen

Born into a family with its own fair share of secrets, Deborah Cohen was raised in Kentucky and educated at Harvard and Berkeley.She teaches at Northwestern University, where she holds the Peter B. Ritzma Professorship of the Humanities.Her last book was the award-winning Household Gods, a history of the British love-affair with the home.
Details
  • Imprint: Penguin
  • ISBN: 9780141048574
  • Length: 416 pages
  • Dimensions: 198mm x 25mm x 129mm
  • Weight: 312g
  • Price: £16.99
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