Clair Wills News Today

Brought up in London and spending childhood summers in her grandmothers house in West Cork prompted the author to delve into her familys background

This engaging and fearless memoir follows the trail of a disappeared cousin

Books newsletter: a preview of Saturday’s pages and round-up of the latest news

The appalling treatment of unmarried mothers and their babies is given a profound new dimension by Cambridge professor Clair Wills as she investigates the story of a lost cousin

Clair Wills discovered she had a secret cousin and set out to find the truth about her Irish family in this powerful memoir

When Clair Wills was a young child, her cousin Mary, who was around seven years older than her, was living in an orphanage down the road from the Cork farm where Clair had spent many happy childhood summers. At the time, Clair — who lived for most of the year with her Irish mother, British father and siblings in Croydon — was absolutely none the wiser of Mary’s existence.

Books newsletter: a preview of Saturday’s pages and round-up of the latest literary news

Clair Wills entered adulthood at a time when the limits placed on Irish women seemed in steady retreat. Then a family discovery revealed a messier reality

Overcoming adversity and unimaginable trauma and uncovering hidden truths are common threads in some of 2024′s most promising non-fiction titles.

Memoirs from Neneh Cherry and Rebel Wilson, Colm Tóibín’s sequel to Brooklyn and a departure for Ali Smith – the biggest fiction and nonfiction for the year ahead