On Chapel Sands: My mother and other missing persons (Paperback)

‘Currently Waterstones nonfiction book of the month, this is a scrupulous work of storytelling, radiant with profound empathy and filial affection.’ - The Guardian

‘The real story of the book isn’t how she was taken from Chapel Sands, but what was taken from her: the truth about who her parents were and why she was adopted; the reason a woman approached her in her teens and said: “Your grandmother wants to see you,” when the only grandmother she had known was dead.’ - The Guardian

'A deeply felt, forensic yet ultimately empathetic examination of human motivation and its attendant sorrows, which is as much a social history of the early 20th century as it is a story of one family and its secrets. Her intermeshing of art, time and memory is superlative.' - The Telegraph

‘The book, is a series of revelations, one twist the reader might foresee early on, but most come out of the blue… the book is a love letter to her mother.’ - The Guardian

'On Chapel Sands is much more than a search for truth. It is a moving, many-sided human story of great depth and tenderness, and a revelation of how art enriches life. In short, a masterpiece.’ - The Sunday Times

'An absolute masterpiece. A book bursting with love - love lost and love found, love misunderstood, unsaid and denied. I was spellbound by Laura Cumming's warm, intelligent, searching voice and her intense scrutiny of images to reveal the unexpected and make us think again. I am in complete awe. A beguilingly lovely book - as big as the sea' - Keggie Carew, author of Dadland

'This utterly enthralling family memoir draws you into a mystery from the childhood of the author's mother... spellbinding... [Cumming] has also woven in photographs and artworks, which beautifully illuminate and complement the narrative' - Caroline Sanderson, The Bookseller