On This Spot Fell One Tear of Love

In her first memoir, acclaimed novelist Louise Doughty tells the story of losing her parents and the unexpected discovery she made whilst clearing out the family home. Inside a black suitcase, the last item left in their bungalow before the sale of the house was completed, she stumbled upon a treasure trove of letters that revealed the origins of her parents’ love affair. These letters offered a fascinating glimpse into the daily lives of working-class people in the 1950s and the tight social conventions that almost prevented her parents from staying together and building a life.

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Pre-publication endorsements for On This Spot Fell One Tear of Love

‘Tender, thoughtful, beautifully written, this is a wonderful and gentle memoir about childhood and class, loss and memory – I loved it.’ Kate Mosse

‘The most beautiful love story… exquisitely written. There is brilliant humour within its pages, yet at the same time, it’s utterly devastating. I adored every single page, and it is, quite simply, one of the most beautiful memoirs I have ever read. Reading it felt like sitting with a friend and having a truly wonderful conversation.’ Joanna Cannon

‘What a brave book, haunting, visceral and beautifully written – it will surely stir everyone’s feelings around family and the hazy depths of the lives behind us.’ DBC Pierre

‘I loved this self-respecting and dignified memoir, especially in its warmth and humour. The writing has a great quality of sanity; it’s also a social history of demonstrable general interest.’ Rachel Cusk

‘A mystery, a love letter, a family history, this astonishing memoir is written with clear eyed compassion and humour, a tribute to two people caught in the conventions of the time and a lesson in forgiveness and understanding. A wonderful book by a great writer.’ Kit de Waal

‘Beautiful and oddly thrilling: a heartfelt meditation on something we all know but rarely talk about – the fact that people, even those closest to us, are ultimately unknowable, that our pasts make strangers of us all. I was very moved and stayed up late into the night to finish it.’ Julie Myerson

‘Tender and clear-eyed, Doughty opens the Pandora’s box of 1950s England, class, family and loss and forbidden love and — oh god — that great mysterious secret: our parents before us. It will make you laugh and make you cry.’ Louisa Young

‘I relished reading this loving, generous and unflinching recollection of the life cycle of a suburban family and the secrets the parents hid from their children. It is quietly elegant and deeply reflective.’
Bernardine Evaristo

‘So moving, intimate, and beautifully observed about parents, secret revelations, love, death, illness and dementia.’ Arifa Akbar