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Episode details

World Service,29 Apr 2021,44 mins

My mother’s fake name and secret past

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Available for over a year

American lawyer Justine Cowan grew up in a wealthy neighbourhood of San Francisco; her childhood was full of privilege, with music lessons and horse riding. It was a lifestyle that seemed fitting for Justine's mother Eileen. She was a highly accomplished English woman who'd always spoken about going to boarding school and studying at London's Royal Academy of Music. But after her death, Justine found out that her mother wasn't who she'd claimed to be. Justine's written a book about what happened called The Secret Life of Dorothy Soames. Get in touch: [email protected] Picture: A young Dorothy Soames in May 1941 Credit: Felix Man/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

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