Alan Cumming's Memoir, NOT MY FATHER'S SON, Reveals Life, Career and Dark Past

A beloved star of stage and screen, Alan Cumming's life and career have been shaped by a complex and dark family past - full of troubled memories, kept buried away. But then an unexpected phone call from his long-estranged father brought the pain of the past hurtling back into the present, and unravelled everything he thought he knew about himself.

Not My Father's Son is the story of his journey of discovery, both a memoir of his childhood in Scotland, and an investigation into his family history which would change him forever.

A moving family memoir with a suspenseful and compelling mystery at its heart.

Cumming alternates between past and present with compulsive revelations peppered throughout, keeping readers gripped from begin to end.

Not My Father's Son was serialised on BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week

Alan is famed for his roles on stage, tv and film, including his Tony Award-winning appearance in Cabaret and lead role in Emmy Award-winning The Good Wife.

"Equal parts memoir, whodunnit and manual for living, Not My Father's Son is a beautifully written, honest look at the forces of blood and bone that make us what we are, and how we make ourselves. I was completely sucked in." - NEIL GAIMAN

"In beautiful, honest, arresting prose, he offers a tale you'll never forget. A real diamond of a book." - ANDREW O'HAGAN

"Do you know the old line "I laughed, I cried, it became a part of me"? Alan Cumming's moving memoir Not My Father's Son is all that and more. This is a beautiful book-sad, funny, haunting, surprising, suspenseful, gut-wrenching, endearing. It will linger inside of you long after you turn the final page."- HARLAN COBEN, author of New York Times bestsellers MISSING YOU and SIX YEARS

'Incredibly affecting' - DAMIAN BARR, Books of the Year, Herald

'A poignant chronicle of damage sustained in youth and his recovery' - MARIELLA FROSTRUP, The Observer

'Powerful . . . the result is both heart-breaking and brave . . . A thoroughly gripping read, one that keeps its biggest revelation until the very end .' - Sunday Times

'Powerful and shocking . . . That he can write isn't a surprise . . . He delves into his own history and leaves no stone unturned, no dark corner unprodded . . . What Cumming knows better than most is that you can never tell from the surface what's going on beneath.' - Scotland on Sunday

'A brave and thoughtful book.' - Spectator

'The book grips like a neo-noir thriller ... What might have been a misery memoir is anything but. The bracing honesty and humour plus the fact that there is not a scintilla of self-pity makes this a tremendously encouraging book.' - Daily Express

'A haunting family history woven with empathy for his soldier grandfather but without a trace of self-pity about his abusive father' - Independent on Sunday, Best Memoirs of 2014

About the Author

A Alan Cumming is an award-winning actor, singer, writer, producer and director. He recently starred in an acclaimed one-man staging of Macbeth on Broadway, and appears on the Emmy Award-winning television show The Good Wife. He won a Tony Award for his portrayal of the Emcee in the Broadway musical Cabaret, a role he has reprised in 2014. He hosts PBS Masterpiece Mystery and has appeared in numerous films, including Spy Kids, Titus, X2: X-Men United, The Anniversary Party, Any Day Now and Eyes Wide Shut. He is also the author of a novel, Tommy's Tale.

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