Only a generation or two ago, illegitimacy was one of the most shameful things that could happen in a family. Today, babies' parents are as likely to be unmarried as married. This revolution in public opinion makes it easy to forget what it was like to give birth, or be born, out of wedlock in the years between the First World War and the dawn of the permissive age. IN THE FAMILY WAY tells secrets kept for entire lifetimes; in it we hear long-silent voices from the workhouse, the Magdalene Laundry, and the distant mother-and-baby home. Anonymous childhoods are recalled, spent in the care of Dr Barnardo or a child migration scheme halfway across the world. There are sorrowful stories - but also stories of hope, of triumph and the everyday strength of the human spirit.