Philomena by Martin Sixsmith
The extraordinary true story that inspired an acclaimed film starring Steve Coogan and Judi Dench, Philomena, by Martin Sixsmith, is a gripping tale of heartache, hypocrisy and ultimately, redemption. It follows the lives of Philomena Lee, who, after falling pregnant in 1952, was treated as a fallen woman by Irish Catholic society, and her son, torn from her by the Church and swept across the Atlantic as one among many forced adoptions. Philomena, shamed and coerced into signing a document promising never to attempt to see her son again, wages a secret, decades-long battle to reconnect with her lost, beloved son. Unbeknownst to her, her son has been renamed Michael Hess, and grew up to become a high-powered lawyer in the homophobic climate of the Reagan and Bush administrations. But he was a gay man in a homophobic party where he had to conceal not only his sexuality but, eventually, the fact that he had AIDS. With little time left, he returned to Ireland and the convent where he was born: his desperate quest to find his mother before he died left a legacy that was to unfold with unexpected consequences for all involved. In this searing narrative, Sixsmith exposes a clandestine world of love, loss, secrets, and the unbroken bond of a mother and child.
Martin Sixsmith was born in Cheshire and educated at Oxford, Harvard and the Sorbonne. From 1980 to 1997 he worked for the BBC as the Corporation’s correspondent in Moscow, Washington, Brussels and Warsaw. From 1997 to 2002 he worked for the Government as Director of Communications and Press Secretary first to Harriet Harman, then to Alistair Darling and finally to Stephen Byers. He is now a writer, presenter and journalist. He is the author of Philomena, as well as the novels Spin and I Heard Lenin Laugh, and the non-fiction books Moscow Coup: The Death of the Soviet System and The Litvinenko File: The True Story of a Death Foretold. He lives in London.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9781447245223 |
| ISBN 10 | 1447245229 |
| Title | Philomena |
| Author | Martin Sixsmith |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | Pan Macmillan |
| Year published | 2013-10-10 |
| Number of pages | 480 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |