The Theft of Truth
M. C. Widdowson
Type: Beta project
Genre: Historical fiction, literary, dual timeline
Word count: 90,000
A Dublin nurse inherits a mahogany writing case, and she uncovers a forgotten battle over inheritance and identity. Hidden within the papers lies a story of fraudulent heirs, a transportation engineered to silence evidence, and a mother fighting to reclaim her son’s stolen birthright. The trials are documented. The evidence survives. One question haunts her. Who stole the truth?
What's this?
The Theft of Truth is a historical novel inspired by real events, family records and documented nineteenth-century trials. When an unexpected inheritance reveals long-forgotten papers and family secrets, Maud traces a story that stretches from early nineteenth-century Ireland to colonial Australia.
As letters, newspaper reports and court transcripts reveal their secrets, an extraordinary story emerges of a disputed inheritance, fraudulent heirs, and a young man transported before he can expose a fraud. Behind it lies a world shaped by legitimacy, social standing and the restrictions of the Penal Laws, where religion could determine rights, property and identity.
At its heart are a mother and son rendered voiceless by law yet determined to reclaim a stolen birthright. Blending family mystery with historical fiction, this novel explores how truth can be buried, distorted and fought for across generations.
Madeleine is a retired nurse and Irish historical fiction author living on the Wirral. She has spent over thirty years tracing family histories across Ireland and beyond, combining first-hand travel with documentary research. Every place in her novel has been visited and studied in person, forming the backbone of her storytelling. She is not an academic but a writer drawn to uncovering and shaping real stories hidden in archives, court records, and family memory. When she is not writing, she is travelling, continuing the research that feeds her work and brings forgotten lives and histories back into focus.
Registration closed early due to high demand.
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