|
More Than Just Coincidence (My Story)
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle .
Learn more
| |||||||||||||||
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Plus, get an extra £5 Gift Certificate when you trade in books worth £10 or more before June 30, 2012. Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. |
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
At the age of 36, struggling writer, Julie Wassmer was about to have her first ever meeting with a literary agent. Little did Julie know how momentous this meeting was set to be.
Twenty years earlier, when Julie was just sixteen, she had become pregnant. Worried how her parents would react, Julie had kept her pregnancy a secret right up until the day she gave birth. Ten days later, she’d been forced to make the hardest decision of her life: to give her baby up for adoption.
As the years passed, Julie often wondered what had happened to her daughter. Now, through the most extra-ordinary of co-incidences, Julie was about to find out. A temporary secretary called Sara had just started working in the agents’ office. Sara had recently discovered that she had been adopted, and had just got hold of her birth certificate. According to the certificate, her mother’s name was Julie Wassmer.
Twenty years earlier, when Julie was just sixteen, she had become pregnant. Worried how her parents would react, Julie had kept her pregnancy a secret right up until the day she gave birth. Ten days later, she’d been forced to make the hardest decision of her life: to give her baby up for adoption.
As the years passed, Julie often wondered what had happened to her daughter. Now, through the most extra-ordinary of co-incidences, Julie was about to find out. A temporary secretary called Sara had just started working in the agents’ office. Sara had recently discovered that she had been adopted, and had just got hold of her birth certificate. According to the certificate, her mother’s name was Julie Wassmer.
From the Publisher
Last year BBC One launched the MY STORY competition to find the most remarkable true-life stories in Britain. Over 7,500 people sent applied and a panel of judges shortlisted fifteen finalists.
Now, over five weeks, MY STORY reveals the fifteen finalists and the five who've won the ultimate prize: to see their story become a published book.
Each week a different celebrity will meet three of the fifteen finalists and, at the end of the programme, the panel of judges will reveal the winning story. The winning story will then become a published book, available from bookshops the day after each programme has been broadcast.
Altogether, over five weeks, five books will be published.
The winning stories were selected by a panel of judges chaired by Kate Mosse, author of best-selling book ‘Labrynth’ and co-founder of the Orange Prize for Literature. The award-winning writer and broadcaster Fergal Keane and novelist Jenny Colgan were also on the panel.
Each of the stories had to be true and they were judged on solely on the quality of the story.
The series begins on Tuesday 7 September with Maureen Lipman presenting the three entries in the FAMILY category. This book will be published the following day.
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I caught the BBC's 'My Story' programme a couple of weeks ago and was so taken with the utterly breathtaking coincidence that was to turn Julie Wassmer's life around forever, that I bought the book.
On the surface Julie was at a career changing moment in her life about to sign to a Literary Agent; no one could have known that behind the same agency door was an emotional reunion with a daughter she had given up for adoption as a small child.
This book is more than just one amazing coincidence, it is an honest, heartfelt and well told story of a fascinating woman growing up in London's East End, dealing with the knocks that come her way and optimistically looking toward her own future. The book is an emotional rollercoaster that had me laughing one minute and then feeling agony in the next. It is what it is, an honest and superbly crafted life story.
Quite simply, I couldn't put it down.
On the surface Julie was at a career changing moment in her life about to sign to a Literary Agent; no one could have known that behind the same agency door was an emotional reunion with a daughter she had given up for adoption as a small child.
This book is more than just one amazing coincidence, it is an honest, heartfelt and well told story of a fascinating woman growing up in London's East End, dealing with the knocks that come her way and optimistically looking toward her own future. The book is an emotional rollercoaster that had me laughing one minute and then feeling agony in the next. It is what it is, an honest and superbly crafted life story.
Quite simply, I couldn't put it down.
Format:Paperback
What a delightful book! I have read a lot of books about adoption and reunification and Julie Wassmer's book was special for a couple of reasons. For one thing, this is the first time I have read that the birth mother didn't rush right out and get married or pregnant again, sometimes right away. Psychologically, on some level, I'm sure those women who did were trying to replace the missing child and to fill the hole in their hearts. But Julie Wassmer waited and never married or had another pregnancy because she knew, at the very young age of 17 for heavens sake, that you can never fill that empty space or replace that child, and she felt she owed it to the little girl she relinquished to wait, and to save that place for her. That is truly remarkable!
Most adoptees who eventually find their birth mother also find that she has other children and on some level, sadly often on an utterly conscience level althouth they would not like to admit it, they are tormented by the fact that although THEY were given up, she was able to keep these other babies. I realize every case is different and people are unique, but in my experience this would be the choice to make, but it seems it almost never is. Human beings are essentially selfish and pretty much want what THEY want, and right now. They don't want time to pass them by and there is no way to explain to them that it won't.
I admire this book also because it told only Julie's story. Her daughter also has a story, as we all do, but there are no details here, which is as it should be. (Although I am curious as to what kind of home she grew up in, did she ever meet--or want to meet--her birth father? And so on ... Perhaps she will write her own book one day.)
I have a huge respect and admiration for the author, for the choices she made over the years. She got pregnant at 16 and had no choice but to give the baby up for adoption, but how she handled the rest of her life is a lesson for us all that the time for ourself will come eventually -- just as hers did with a fairly late-in-life marriage. In the meantime she enjoyed her life working and playing in a variety of ways, counting the years until that little baby was old enough to look for her. Of course, she might have chosen not to. But Julie felt in her heart, always, that she would.
Loved the book. Loved the writing. Loved the message I got from it.
Most adoptees who eventually find their birth mother also find that she has other children and on some level, sadly often on an utterly conscience level althouth they would not like to admit it, they are tormented by the fact that although THEY were given up, she was able to keep these other babies. I realize every case is different and people are unique, but in my experience this would be the choice to make, but it seems it almost never is. Human beings are essentially selfish and pretty much want what THEY want, and right now. They don't want time to pass them by and there is no way to explain to them that it won't.
I admire this book also because it told only Julie's story. Her daughter also has a story, as we all do, but there are no details here, which is as it should be. (Although I am curious as to what kind of home she grew up in, did she ever meet--or want to meet--her birth father? And so on ... Perhaps she will write her own book one day.)
I have a huge respect and admiration for the author, for the choices she made over the years. She got pregnant at 16 and had no choice but to give the baby up for adoption, but how she handled the rest of her life is a lesson for us all that the time for ourself will come eventually -- just as hers did with a fairly late-in-life marriage. In the meantime she enjoyed her life working and playing in a variety of ways, counting the years until that little baby was old enough to look for her. Of course, she might have chosen not to. But Julie felt in her heart, always, that she would.
Loved the book. Loved the writing. Loved the message I got from it.
Format:Paperback
I read this book in 3 days ... had trouble closing the book each night in order to sleep! Very well written & deeply touching: a brilliant true story. I loved reading it & am so glad it was written.
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
BUY IT !
Fantastic heartfelt autobiography - well written and easy to read. As an adoptee myself it was fascinating to find out how Julie came to even meet her daughter. Read more
Published 13 months ago by J. WALKER
Some Things are Meant To Be
What a heart-warming and incredible story this is. There can't be many people who read Julie's story and not have a tear in their eye at the end of it. Read more
Published 16 months ago by Mrs. C. Colbert
Taken by Surprise
Not usually my sort of thing a careworn middle aged man would like but my Aunties had both watched My Story and couldn't stop talking about this real life drama of a girl giving up... Read more
Published 18 months ago by M.C.
More Than Just a Coincidence (My Story)
A really enjoyable read. I was born and raised in the East End and I now live on the west coast of Canada. Read more
Published 19 months ago by Elayne
How could it possibly happen?
This book was absolutely unputdownable. I am going to read it again also. I bought a copy for a friend and she couldn't put it down and I lent mine to my nextdoor neighbour and... Read more
Published 19 months ago by Mags
It will make you cry
I watched 3 short films, true stories, the best one got published. This story was the best, very sad with a happy ending. If your a parent, and read this book, you will cry. Read more
Published 19 months ago by Amy Turtle
An extraordinary story
Really recommend this book. It has great pace and an engaging authorial voice. It is very emotionally moving in places, yet is leavened by a whimsical humour and, of course, there... Read more
Published 20 months ago by Peter B
an unbelieavable tale with a happy ending.
well I loved the book. It was an honest account of a childhood riddled with tales we could all recognise. Read more
Published 20 months ago by anna gale
Compelling but incomplete
"The remarkable story of how a mother and daughter were reunited in one astonishing twist of fate" reads the cover, but Julie and Sara's unexpected meeting and their subsequent... Read more
Published 20 months ago by Hils T
More than just a good book
I bought this book after seeing Julie Wassmer's story about how she and her daughter found each other on the My Story programme on BBC1, and was interested to find out more. Read more
Published 20 months ago by Ms. Anne Wood
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
