Chatto & Windus lands Nicolson’s ‘timely exploration of the social history of secret-keeping’

Chatto & Windus has acquired The Hidden Truth, “a timely exploration of the social history of secret-keeping” by Juliet Nicolson, author of A House Full of Daughters and Frostquake (also Chatto & Windus).

Deputy publishing director Becky Hardie bought UK and Commonwealth rights excluding Canada from Clare Conville at C&W.

The publisher said: “In a stunning work of social history that looks at the way secrets mirror women’s experience, Juliet Nicolson explores the secrets that have preoccupied, shamed and shaped the lives of three generations of women. Secret keeping is embedded in the motor drive of our lives. Secrets affect those of every age and every background. Did you know that women are keeping an average of 13 secrets at any one time?

“But how do the secrets that by turns tormented and thrilled our grandmothers and mothers differ from those that now thrill and torment us, their daughters and granddaughters? How and why has the universal, timeless practice of secrecy changed for women over the past three generations? Looking at the changes in law and in society’s ever-shifting attitudes, Nicolson asks how we can learn from the past to help us shape a present where a woman’s life lived truthfully, to herself and others, is a life well-lived.”

Hardie said: “This ambitious but intimate new idea is perfectly suited to Juliet’s talents as an astute and original social historian who writes beautiful, emotionally intelligent and revealing books.”