In The Family Way. Illegitimacy Between The Great War And The Swinging Sixties

Cover Type: Hardcover
Book Condition: Fine
Jacket Condition: Fine
Publisher: Viking
Publisher Place: London
Publisher Year: 2015
Edition: First Edition

Description: 317 pages. Ex-Library. Book and Jacket appear to have hardly been read and are both in Fine condition throughout.

Publishers Description: Only a generation or two ago, illegitimacy was one of the most shameful things that could happen in a family. Unmarried mothers were considered immoral, single fathers feckless and bastard children inherently defective. They were hidden away from friends and relations as guilty secrets, punished by society and denied their place in the family tree. Today, the concept of illegitimacy no longer exists in law, and babies' parents are as likely to be unmarried as married. This revolution in public opinion makes it easy to forget what it was really like to give birth, or be born, out of wedlock in the years between World War One and the dawn of the Permissive Age. By speaking to those involved - many of whom have never felt able to talk about their experiences before - Jane Robinson reveals a story not only of shame and appalling prejudice, but also of triumph and the every-day strength of the human spirit. In the Family Way tells secrets kept for entire lifetimes and rescues from the shadows an important part of all our family histories. In it we hear long-silent voices from the workhouse, the Magdalene Laundry or the distant mother-and-baby home. Anonymous childhoods are recalled, spent in the care of Dr Barnardo or a Child Migration scheme halfway across the world. There are sorrowful stories in this book, but it is also about hope- about supportive families who defied social expectations by welcoming 'love-children' home, or those who were parted and are now reconciled. Most of all, In the Family Way is about finally telling the truth. 'In the Family Way is an important social history tracked through personal stories that need to be heard and will soon be beyond memory.' Elizabeth Grice, Daily Telegraph 'Robinson, who wrote the excellent Bluestockings, has a good eye for the human story and the affecting detail that brings alive the hypocritical moral landscape of the period.' Daisy Goodwin, Sunday Times ' Robinson has made contact with 100 unmarried mothers and their progeny and deftly interweaves their stories with the political and institutional history...... The chapter on single fathers is especially interesting because it defies expectations.'

ISBN: 9780670922062