All My Mother's Secrets

A powerful true story of love, loss and a family torn apart

A vivid, heart-warming story of survival

Annie Austin’s childhood ends at the age of twelve, when she joins her mother in one of the slum laundries of Acton, working long hours for little pay. What spare time she has is spent looking after her younger brother George and her two stepsisters, under the glowering eye of her stepfather Bill. In London between the wars, a girl like Annie has few choices in life – but a powerful secret will change her destiny.

All Annie knows about her real father is that he died in the Great War, and as the years pass she is haunted by the pain of losing him. Her downtrodden mother won’t tell her more and Annie’s attempts to uncover the truth threaten to destroy her family. Distraught, she runs away to Covent Garden, but can she survive on her own and find the love which has eluded her so far?

From the grimy streets of Acton and Notting Hill to the bright lights of the West End, All My Mother’s Secrets is a powerful, uplifting story of a young woman’s struggle to come to terms with her family’s tragic past.

O poveste adevarata puternica de dragoste, pierdere si o familie sfasiata O poveste vie, calda de inima, de supravietuire. Copilaria lui Annie Austin se incheie la varsta de doisprezece ani, cand se alatura mamei sale intr-una din spalatoriile din mahalaua din Acton, lucrand ore lungi pentru salariu mic. Ce timp liber are pentru a-l ingriji pe fratele ei mai mic George si pe cele doua surori vitrege ale sale, sub ochii stralucitori ai tatalui ei vitreg Bill.