Two narratives run through it: the mother’s childhood tale and Cumming’s own pursuit of the truth. On Chapel Sands is a book of mystery and memoir. Cumming began with a few criss-crossing lives in this fraction of English coast – the postman, the grocer, the elusive baker – but soon her search spread right out across the globe as she discovered just how many lives were affected by what happened that day on the beach – including her own. Cumming grew up enthralled by her mother’s strange tales of life in a seaside hamlet of the 1930s, and of the secrets and lies perpetuated by a whole community. The girl became an artist and had a daughter, art writer Laura Cumming. It was another fifty years before she even learned of the kidnap. The child remembered nothing of these events and nobody ever spoke of them at home. Five agonising days went by before she was found in a nearby village. In the autumn of 1929, a small child was kidnapped from a Lincolnshire beach. Uncovering the mystery of her mother’s disappearance as a child: Laura Cumming, prize-winning author and art critic, takes a closer look at her family story. " A poetic blend of memoir and detective story" -Evening Standard so familiar as to be universal." ― Mail on Sunday "By turns beautiful, wistful, and ominous. an intimate portrait of a village community, with its storybook characters." ― Guardian, Summer Read 2019 It is a moving, many-sided human story of great depth and tenderness, and a revelation of how art enriches life. "On Chapel Sands is much more than a search for truth.
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