Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    The Secret Life of Dorothy Soames: A Memoir
    The Secret Life of Dorothy Soames: A Memoir
    The Secret Life of Dorothy Soames: A Memoir
    Audiobook8 hours

    The Secret Life of Dorothy Soames: A Memoir

    Written by Justine Cowan

    Narrated by Lisa Flanagan

    4/5

    ()

    Switch to ebook

    About this audiobook

    A riveting family drama evocative of Angela’s Ashes and The Glass Castle, about a woman who discovers the shocking secret at the center of her mother’s life.

    Justine had always been told that her mother came from royal blood. The proof could be found in her mother’s elegance, her uppercrust London accent—and in a cryptic letter hinting at her claim to a country estate. But beneath the polished veneer lay a fearsome, unpredictable temper that drove Justine from home the moment she was old enough to escape. Years later, when her mother sent her an envelope filled with secrets from the past, Justine buried it in the back of an old filing cabinet.

    Overcome with grief after her mother’s death, Justine found herself drawn back to that envelope. Its contents revealed a mystery that stretched back to the early years of World War II and beyond, into the dark corridors of the Hospital for the Maintenance and Education of Exposed and Deserted Young Children. Established in the eighteenth century to raise “bastard” children to clean chamber pots for England’s ruling class, the institution was tied to some of history’s most influential figures and events. From its role in the development of solitary confinement and human medical experimentation to the creation of the British Museum and the Royal Academy of Arts, its impact on Western culture continues to reverberate. It was also the environment that shaped a young girl known as Dorothy Soames, who bravely withstood years of physical and emotional abuse at the hands of a sadistic headmistress—a resilient child who dreamed of escape as German bombers rained death from the skies.

    Heartbreaking, surprising, and unforgettable, The Secret Life of Dorothy Soames is the true story of one woman’s quest to understand the secrets that had poisoned her mother’s mind, and her startling discovery that her family’s fate had been sealed centuries before.

    Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperAudio
    Release dateJan 12, 2021
    ISBN9780062991041
    Author

    Justine Cowan

    Justine Cowan was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area. Growing up wandering through California’s majestic redwood forests, she became a passionate environmentalist, and has spent most of her career working to protect our nation’s natural resources. Justine is grateful to her readers and enjoys interacting with them through book clubs and social media. Visit her website at www.justinecowan.com to learn more about how to schedule a virtual visit for your next book club gathering.

    Related to The Secret Life of Dorothy Soames

    Related audiobooks

    Personal Memoirs For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      In 'The Less People Know About Us' A Mysterious Identity Theft Hits Close To Home

      Oct 20, 2019

      Axton Betz-Hamilton was 12 when her family's mail began disappearing. Her memoir details what follows and, when she discovers the culprit, the painful process of collecting the pieces of her past.

      2 min read

    • Article

      The Murder Of James Bulger 30 Years On

      Feb 7, 2023

      This week marks 30 years since two-year-old James Bulger was abducted and murdered by two 10-year-old boys, Jon Venables and Robert Thompson. James would be in his 30s now. Would he be married? A father? With a career? All that was snatched away from

      4 min read

    • Article

      Greedy Gold En Girls

      Mar 25, 2021

      Greedy Gold En Girls
      3 min read

    • Article

      February’s BOOK CLUB

      Jan 5, 2023

      River Sing Me Home by Eleanor Shearer (£18.99, HB, Headline) It’s Barbados 1834 and slavery has been abolished, but former slaves must work for another six years – for free! In an act of resistance, Rachel heads off through the Caribbean and South A

      4 min read

    • Article

      EMMA & ELLIOT: IT’S OVER

      Feb 12, 2021

      EMMA & ELLIOT: IT’S OVER
      4 min read

    • Article

      Samantha Irby On Oversharing And The Art Of Confessional Writing

      May 9, 2018

      Samantha Irby is not shy about her shortcomings. The blogger and author of the essay collections "We Are Never Meeting in Real Life" and "Meaty" writes both openly and hilariously about dealing with Crohn's disease, awkward dating experiences and bad

      4 min read

    • Article

      Celeste Ng’s Hard Truths

      Sep 17, 2022

      Celeste Ng’s Hard Truths
      6 min read

    • Article

      Patrick Radden Keefe

      Mar 4, 2019

      After four years researching one of the most notorious killings in Northern Ireland’s history, the New Yorker staff writer made a shocking discovery that may have actually solved the crime. His new book, Say Nothing, claims to unmask the person who f

      2 min read

    • Article

      The Night Swim

      Jul 30, 2020

      Rachel, a true crime podcaster, is following a rape trial playing out in a small, ocean-side town. A young star swimmer has been accused of brutally assaulting the local police chief’s granddaughter and the case has quickly divided locals. But the da

      1 min read

    • Article

      Havenfall

      Feb 26, 2020

      RELEASED 3 MARCH 304 pages | Paperback/ebook Author Sara Holland Publisher Bloomsbury Adolescence is hard enough at the best of times, but throw in a murdered brother, a mother on death row and a high school full of bullies that really don’t apprecia

      1 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for The Secret Life of Dorothy Soames

    4/5

    29 ratings3 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      I guess I would have to call Justine Cowan's book a memoir, although it is also a biography and perhaps a psychological study of two women: Justine herself and her mother Eileen. The two had a very difficult relationship and were almost totally estranged by the time Eileen passed away. Her mother spoke with a rather practiced aristocratic British accent, and when she married an American GI and moved to California, she did everything possible to convey that she was upper crust. She forced Justine to take riding lessons (which she eventually grew to love), penmanship lessons, violin lessons with a Suzuki master, etiquette lessons, sent her away to boarding school and more, and she constantly criticized her daughter for behaving like or just longing to be a normal kid living a normal life. Her mother also had bouts of fierce rage, often directed at Justine. It got to the point that when Justine finally moved out to live on her own, she would ask her father to visit her alone--until her mother found out and the visits stopped altogether. Curiously, Eileen never talked about her family, even when Justine asked about grandparents or what her life had been like as a child. It wasn't until after her mother's death that she began to search for the puzzle pieces and fit them together. She recalled a time when her mother had phoned her, asking her to visit because at last she wanted to tell her about her past. Justine's response: "It's too late." When she began her research into Eileen's background after her death, she remembered that her mother had also sent her a handwritten autobiography years ago, but she had put it away unread.Much to her surprise, Justine learned that Eileen had been born to an unwed mother and surrendered to Coram Foundling Hospital where she was given the name Dorothy Soames. She set out on a journey to London to learn as much as possible about her mother's family, her childhood in a rigid institutional environment, and her life after leaving Coram. What she learned finally gave Justine an understanding of her mother's personality and often strange behavior, and it also gave her insight into the effects this background may have had on her own development.Overall, this was an interesting read--although at times I found Justine to be just as maddening and self-centered as her mother. If the book makes anything clear, it is that the psychologists were right when they determined that early childhood experiences shape our personalities and affect both the trajectory of our lives and the nature of our relationships.
    • 4/5
      I was impressed with the author's prose style and was riveted by the narrative from the first page. There were a lot of elements in this story, most importantly the journal of the titular woman from her time in a foundling hospital in England and the story of Justine's life growing up with a mother who was not trained to be one. As a whole it was 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 Dorothy Soames (the name Cowan’s mother was given at the hospital).” The author's ability to blend these disparate parts together in a balanced narrative was what I most appreciated. In its totality It is a story that is both sad and uplifting.
    • 5/5
      For almost three hundred years, London's Foundling Hospital took in unwanted illegitimate children and raised the girls to become household servants and the boys to become soldiers and sailors. The mother of author Justine Cowan was one such child. Known by the asylum-assigned name of "Dorothy Soames," she endured many privations, including a regimented lifestyle, poor education, and flavorless food. Because she was a spirited girl with an independent streak, she was also subject to beatings and stints in solitary confinement. Her story had a happier resolution than most; eventually she married a wealthy American lawyer and had two daughters, but the scars from her childhood remained. Through Cowan's research into the history of the Foundling Hospital, and her mother's own autobiographical account, the author comes to realize that her eccentric, aloof mother did not know how to be a mother because she had never been mothered herself.The Secret Life of Dorothy Soames provides a heartfelt look at a troubled mother-daughter relationship, as well as a fascinating social history of the treatment of children born out of wedlock. Highly recommended.