{"title":"Justine Cowan","description":"\u003cp\u003eDelve into the poignant and beautifully written stories of Justine Cowan. Her books offer a unique and compelling exploration of history and the human spirit. Start browsing her collection now.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"secret-life-of-dorothy-soames-book-justine-cowan-9780349013183","title":"The Secret Life of Dorothy Soames","description":"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.  '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.  '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","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49526041411857,"sku":"GOR011106346","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":49737291137297,"sku":"NGR9780349013183","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53252360896785,"sku":"GOR012212024","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0349013187.jpg?v=1751431511"},{"product_id":"secret-life-of-dorothy-soames-book-justine-cowan-9780349013190","title":"The Secret Life of Dorothy Soames","description":"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","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49527295410449,"sku":"GOR012255506","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":49737847308561,"sku":"NGR9780349013190","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53041707745553,"sku":"GOR013110245","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0349013195.jpg?v=1750781446"},{"product_id":"secret-life-of-dorothy-soames-book-justine-cowan-9780349013176","title":"The Secret Life of Dorothy Soames","description":"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.  'Page-turning and profoundly moving' VIRGINIA NICHOLSON  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.  'A gripping true story' Christina Baker Kline, bestselling author of ORPHAN TRAIN  'Breathtaking' Adrienne Brodeur, bestselling author of WILD GAME","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49588661223697,"sku":"GOR011789833","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53430945644817,"sku":"GOR012316174","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0349013179.jpg?v=1750813872"},{"product_id":"secret-life-of-dorothy-soames-book-justine-cowan-9780062991027","title":"The Secret Life of Dorothy Soames","description":"\u003cp\u003e\"Far from growing up in the wealthy, fox-hunting circles she had always\u003cbr\u003e suggested, her mother had in fact been raised in a foundling hospital for the\u003cbr\u003e children of unwed women.\" -- Editor's Choice, The New York Times Book Review\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\"Extraordinary ... fascinating, moving.\" --The Telegraph\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\"This emotional and transatlantic journey is a page-turner.\" -- Editor's Pick, Amazon\u003cbr\u003e Book Review\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\"Book groups will\u003cbr\u003e find as much to discuss here as they have with The Glass Castle by Jeannette\u003cbr\u003e Walls, and Educated by Tara Westover.\" -- BookList\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eRecommended\u003cbr\u003e by The New York Times, The Saturday Evening Post,\u003cbr\u003e Amazon Book Review, The Atlanta Journal Constitution, Publisher's\u003cbr\u003e Weekly, Kirkus and more, Justine Cowan's remarkable true\u003cbr\u003e story of how she uncovered her mother's upbringing as a foundling at London's\u003cbr\u003e Hospital for the Maintenance and Education of Exposed and Deserted Young\u003cbr\u003e Children has received acclaim on both sides of the Atlantic. In the U.K., it\u003cbr\u003e has been featured in The Mail on Sunday, The Daily Mail,\u003cbr\u003e The Daily Mirror and The Spectator. The\u003cbr\u003e Telegraph calls it \"extraordinary and Glamour magazine chose\u003cbr\u003e it as the best new book based on real life.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe story begins when Justine found her often volatile mother in\u003cbr\u003e an unlit room writing a name over and over again, one that she had never heard\u003cbr\u003e before and would not hear again for many years - Dorothy Soames. Thirty years\u003cbr\u003e later, overcome with grief following her mother's death, Justine found herself\u003cbr\u003e drawn back to the past, uncovering a mystery that stretched back to the early\u003cbr\u003e years of World War II and beyond, into the dark corridors of the Hospital for\u003cbr\u003e the Maintenance and Education of Exposed and Deserted Young Children.\u003cbr\u003e Established in the eighteenth century to raise \"bastard\" children to clean\u003cbr\u003e chamber pots for England's ruling class, the institution was tied to some of\u003cbr\u003e history's most influential figures and events. From its role in the development\u003cbr\u003e of solitary confinement and human medical experimentation to the creation of\u003cbr\u003e the British Museum and the Royal Academy of Arts, its impact on Western culture\u003cbr\u003e continues to reverberate. It is the reason we\u003cbr\u003e read Dickens' Oliver Twist and enjoy\u003cbr\u003e Handel's Messiah each Christmas.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIt was also the environment that shaped a young girl known as\u003cbr\u003e Dorothy Soames, who bravely withstood years of physical and emotional abuse at\u003cbr\u003e the hands of a sadistic headmistress--a resilient child whose only hope would be\u003cbr\u003e a daring escape as German bombers rained death from the skies.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cp\u003eHeartbreaking, surprising, and\u003cbr\u003e unforgettable, The Secret\u003cbr\u003e Life of Dorothy Soames is the true story of one woman's quest\u003cbr\u003e to understand the secrets that had poisoned her mother's mind, and her\u003cbr\u003e startling discovery that her family's fate had been sealed centuries before.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49884918612241,"sku":"CIN0062991027G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50239164252433,"sku":"CIN0062991027VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ LIKE_NEW \/ SBYB","offer_id":50343695974673,"sku":"CIN0062991027LN","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":50999144644881,"sku":"NIN9780062991027","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53133129351441,"sku":"GOR014763890","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53147389821201,"sku":"GOR014776534","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0062991027.jpg?v=1766141298"},{"product_id":"secret-life-of-dorothy-soames-book-justine-cowan-9780062991010","title":"The Secret Life of Dorothy Soames","description":"\u003cp\u003e\"Far from growing up in the wealthy, fox-hunting circles she had always\u003cbr\u003e suggested, her mother had in fact been raised in a foundling hospital for the\u003cbr\u003e children of unwed women.\" -- Editor's Choice, The New York Times Book Review\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\"Extraordinary ... fascinating, moving.\" --The Telegraph\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\"This emotional and transatlantic journey is a page-turner.\" -- Editor's Pick, Amazon\u003cbr\u003e Book Review\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\"Book groups will\u003cbr\u003e find as much to discuss here as they have with The Glass Castle by Jeannette\u003cbr\u003e Walls, and Educated by Tara Westover.\" -- BookList\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eRecommended\u003cbr\u003e by The New York Times, The Saturday Evening Post,\u003cbr\u003e Amazon Book Review, The Atlanta Journal Constitution, Publisher's\u003cbr\u003e Weekly, Kirkus and more, Justine Cowan's remarkable true\u003cbr\u003e story of how she uncovered her mother's upbringing as a foundling at London's\u003cbr\u003e Hospital for the Maintenance and Education of Exposed and Deserted Young\u003cbr\u003e Children has received acclaim on both sides of the Atlantic. In the U.K., it\u003cbr\u003e has been featured in The Mail on Sunday, The Daily Mail,\u003cbr\u003e The Daily Mirror and The Spectator. The\u003cbr\u003e Telegraph calls it \"extraordinary and Glamour magazine chose\u003cbr\u003e it as the best new book based on real life.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe story begins when Justine found her often volatile mother in\u003cbr\u003e an unlit room writing a name over and over again, one that she had never heard\u003cbr\u003e before and would not hear again for many years - Dorothy Soames. Thirty years\u003cbr\u003e later, overcome with grief following her mother's death, Justine found herself\u003cbr\u003e drawn back to the past, uncovering a mystery that stretched back to the early\u003cbr\u003e years of World War II and beyond, into the dark corridors of the Hospital for\u003cbr\u003e the Maintenance and Education of Exposed and Deserted Young Children.\u003cbr\u003e Established in the eighteenth century to raise \"bastard\" children to clean\u003cbr\u003e chamber pots for England's ruling class, the institution was tied to some of\u003cbr\u003e history's most influential figures and events. From its role in the development\u003cbr\u003e of solitary confinement and human medical experimentation to the creation of\u003cbr\u003e the British Museum and the Royal Academy of Arts, its impact on Western culture\u003cbr\u003e continues to reverberate. It is the reason we\u003cbr\u003e read Dickens' Oliver Twist and enjoy\u003cbr\u003e Handel's Messiah each Christmas.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIt was also the environment that shaped a young girl known as\u003cbr\u003e Dorothy Soames, who bravely withstood years of physical and emotional abuse at\u003cbr\u003e the hands of a sadistic headmistress--a resilient child whose only hope would be\u003cbr\u003e a daring escape as German bombers rained death from the skies.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cp\u003eHeartbreaking, surprising, and\u003cbr\u003e unforgettable, The Secret\u003cbr\u003e Life of Dorothy Soames is the true story of one woman's quest\u003cbr\u003e to understand the secrets that had poisoned her mother's mind, and her\u003cbr\u003e startling discovery that her family's fate had been sealed centuries before.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50305240662289,"sku":"CIN0062991019VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":52102825312529,"sku":"CIN0062991019G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0062991019.jpg?v=1750811207"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/collections\/author-books-by-justine-cowan.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}