Title Deeds

(Paperback)

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Description

A searingly honest, funny and moving memoir of growing up with an abusive, alcoholic father in a dysfunctional aristocratic Scottish family- a non-fiction I Capture the Castle Liza Campbell was the last child to be born at Cawdor Castle, as featured in Macbeth. Her father Hugh, the 25th Thane of Cawdor, inherited good looks,wealth, an ancient title, three stately homes and 100,000 acres of land. But increasingly overwhelmed by his enormous responsibilities, Hugh turned to drink, drugs, and extramarital affairs. Until the castle was transformed into an arena of reckless profligacy, abuse and terrifying domestic violence, leading to the abrupt termination of a legacy that had been passed down through the family for six hundred years. Title Deeds is a dark yet funny, contemporary fairy story about growing up in an old family where ancient curses and grisly past events are matched by the turmoil of a confusing and frightening present. Liza Campbell shows how even enormous wealth and privilege can hide unspoken abuse and misery- and what it is like to watch your father destroy himself and everything he holds dear.

Reviews

A gripping page turner...Title Deeds is a great title, and Liza Campbell's book lives up to it. * Daily Mail *
Campbell tells the wild, sorry tale with a sharp, offhand wit, and a genuine desire to explore the reasons for her father's decline and fall. * Sunday Times *
She could have milked the melodrama ...But Campbell is too bright and too good a writer to fall for any of that schlock...she writes not from catharsis or revenge, but in the spirit of puzzlement and discovery...Ultimately, I suspect Campbell and her family will never know entirely what motivated Cawdor's cruelty, but the exploration, in his daughter's capable hands, is completely compelling. * Daily Telegraph *
Lady Liza Campbell has come up trumps with her fanfare of an autobiography...laces her memoir with stirring anecdotes from recent and remote history...This is a sad book; yet Campbell's lack of sentimentality and needle-sharp wit make for a guiltily voyeuristic read. * Independent *
A tale of woe signifying everything, a modern tragedy played out among the battlements of a great Scottish castle...written with great courage...a stark tale of profligacy and injustice. * Country Life *

Author Bio

Liza Campbell is a columnist for Harpers & Queen, an artist, writer and calligrapher. She lives in London with her two children.