Letter to Louise

In 1964, in a bare room in Waterloo, a young actress gave her baby for adoption. They were to be parted for more than 20 years. The actress was Pauline Collis and the baby was her daughter Louise. This is a memoir of the months leading up to that day in Waterloo. In it, Pauline Collins recalls the idyllic time spent in rep in Killarney, playing in a different play every night, seven days a week, living in digs and falling in love. After the season had finished, she found she was pregnant. Frightened and alone now, she decided to have the baby, hiding the fact from family, agents and friends. Going to ground, she waited for the baby to be born in a home for unmarried mothers, buoyed up by the kindness and humour of the other residents, and the nuns who cared for them. Yet soon she came to realise that she had no choice but to give her daughter away. Reluctantly she got on with life, finally achieving success and personal happiness. But she never forgot Louise and their story has the ultimate happy ending, the day they were reunited 22 years later.