A heartbreaking, beautifully written memoir about tragic loss, a family mystery, a son’s faith and his long quest to find his missing mother.

DARLING BABY MINE is a dramatic page-turner about the author’s search for his mother who disappeared without trace when he was four years old. It was as if she never existed. He did not even know her name. After surmounting many obstacles, including his father’s implacable silence and his own doubts and fears, he finds her thirty-five years later severely damaged by years in mental institutions. The author is then faced with trying to re-establish the most significant ties in human experience: the bond between a mother and her child.

John de St. Jorre is the author of thirteen previous books, two of which were re-issued in 2009 as Faber Finds. He was born in London and became a journalist after five years in M16. He lives in Newport, Rhode Island.

‘Marvellous, enthralling in every way – as a compelling search, as sleuthing, as the discovery of a lost world and ultimately as the affirmation of a son’s resilience and a mother’s love.’ – Paul Theroux, international best-selling novelist and travel writer

‘A powerful, deeply affecting achievement by one of the most distinguished journalists of his generation.’ – John Cornwell

‘This is one of those books you can’t put down until you know how it ends. . . . With compassion and insight, the author reveals a tragic story that is ultimately uplifting.’ -Donald Trelford, former editor of the Observer

‘His tender and compellingly readable book tells an unforgettable story of filial faith, duty and love.’ – Simon Winchester

‘Darling Baby Mine is a fascinating hybrid of memoir, detective story and novel.’ – The Spectator

‘Darling Baby Mine is a deeply affecting story, beautifully told, all the more powerful for its lack of self-pity with period-sharp descriptions of people and places that helped him piece together his family jigsaw with the dedication of an investigative journalist.’ – The Literary Review