Family Secrets Turn Science Into Memoir Mystery
Joanne Briggs’ memoir has the pull of a real-life thriller because the mystery sits inside a family. Science, identity and deception collide, giving readers a story about truth that feels personal as well as intellectually gripping. The secrecy gives it momentum.
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The Scientist Who Wasn't There
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Family Secrets Turn Science Into Memoir Mystery
Joanne Briggs’ memoir has the pull of a real-life thriller because the mystery sits inside a family. Science, identity and deception collide, giving readers a story about truth that feels personal as well as intellectually gripping. The secrecy gives it momentum.
- Book Synopsis
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'A page-turner with a mystery to solve' - Cathy Rentzenbrink
'An exceptional, entirely unpredictable, real-life thriller' - Michael Mansfield
'An astonishingly original memoir about truth, identity and the ethics of science' The Telegraph
'Gripping' The Times
WINNER OF THE BRIDPORT PRIZE FOR MEMOIR
Renowned scientist Professor Michael Briggs was many things: A Space expert at NASA An adviser to the World Health Organisation A successful Big Pharma executive But Michael Briggs had a secret. A scandal broke out in 1986 when research he conducted was revealed to be compromised. Patients were also claiming that a pregnancy test he pioneered had caused devastating birth defects. Soon after his fall from grace, Briggs was dead, struck down by a mystery illness in a foreign country Briggs left behind a long list of publications, patents, and inventions.
But he also left behind hundreds of people who believe they are victims of his negligence and who are still fighting for justice to this day. And he left someone else: his daughter, Joanne. After decades of wondering who her father really was, Joanne decided to investigate for herself. In hypnotic prose, she uncovers the secret that shaped her father's entire life and made his story more fantastic than any science fiction. As she discovered, Briggs's greatest invention was himself.
Ideal for readers who:
- Read memoirs that unfold like real-life mysteries
- Trace a daughter uncovering secrets around a celebrated scientist
- Question truth, identity, ethics and the cost of family deception
- Seek nonfiction where personal discovery carries thriller-like momentum
- About The Author
- Joanne's debut book, The Scientist Who Wasn't There, was awarded the first Bridport Prize for memoir in April 2023. She was a barrister for many years and has continued to work in other legal roles, in a career spanning nearly four decades. She lives in Sussex.
- Product Details
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- ISBN
- 9781804189764
- Format
- Paperback
- Publisher
- Ithaka, (04 June 2026)
- Number of Pages
- 288
- Weight
- 212 grams
- Language
- English
- Dimensions
- 204 x 136 x 19 mm
- Categories: