Secrets Never To Be Told
The True Story of a Windfall Inheritance and a Very Personal Investigation
1st Edition
Published on 1. December 2021
336 pages
978-1-83978-417-0 (ISBN)
Description
'Secrets Never to be Told' is an extraordinary story, compellingly told, which unravels a century and a half of family secrets. It reveals how being born illegitimate shaped the lives of two women - one of them, the author. Starting with a letter revealing a mystery inheritance, the author goes on a five- year quest taking her from Victorian Cambridge to modern Vancouver. She uncovers how her cousin Jessie emigrated to Canada, one of thousands of female domestic servants exported as 'surplus' women before the First World War. Woven alongside the contemporary detective investigation on the trail of one immigrant's untold story, is that of the author's strange 1960s childhood of social isolation in a Midlands city, obsessed with a world seen through TV - and with the Beatles.
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Content
- Intro
- List of Illustrations
- Prologue
- Chapter One
- Chapter Two
- Chapter Three
- Chapter Four
- Chapter Five
- Chapter Six
- Chapter Seven
- Chapter Eight
- Chapter Nine
- Chapter Ten
- Chapter Eleven
- Chapter Twelve
- Chapter Thirteen
- Chapter Fourteen
- Chapter Fifteen
- Appendix
- Acknowledgements
- Notes and References
- Further Reading
- Table of Contents
- Jessie Heading with Mrs Harriet Rooke, Cambridge (c1890)
- Jessie as a young woman, carte de visite, Cambridge (c1895)
- A young woman, likely Kate Muncey, London (c1908)
- Mary McDonald, Leicester (1941)
- Clarence Chesterton (c1943)
- The author with Clarence and Mary, Bridlington (1953)
- The author with a monkey (1961)
- The author, with her mum and dad, at the seaside (c1955 and c1965)
- The author with the Ford Cortina (1965)
- The author, Hillside Tennis Club, Leicester (1967)
- George Underwood, Langley, British Columbia (c1910)
- Jessie with William, Langley, B.C (c1922)
- Margaret Bell, George's sister, Dumfries, Scotland (c1910)
- Milner School, Langley, with William back row, far left (c1925)
- The house on 56th Avenue, Langley, B.C (date unknown, post-1970)
- William, at his front door (date unknown, post-1970)
- The author, Fort Langley Cemetery (September 2017)
