Tales from Daler Cottage – Unearthing Childhood Memories Through Old Stories

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Tales from Daler Cottage is about my children’s stories written between the ages of 9 and 16. The years would have been 1975 to 1982. During this time, I was completely unaware of a terrible truth about my life. I was living in Daler Cottage, the given name of my childhood home.

Surreal drawing of staircase in book Tales from Daler Cottage
My book, Tales from Daler Cottage.


In April 1985, at the age of 19, I would start a novel called The Lessons. This novel was fuelled by a fantasy world that was burning me up inside. For the next thirty years, I would struggle with this novel, oblivious to this truth about myself. The story of The Lessons is covered in my other book.

The Strange Power of Early Stories

Prior to my novel-writing phase, I was writing mysteries, poems, drawing, painting and devising plays. I kept a diary between 1977 and 1988. I went to art school between 1981 and 1986, all during complete oblivion to my past. I would continue to write and paint for many years to come. My diaries illuminate the circumstances surrounding my creations. Unknown to me, clues to this horrific truth have also leaked into my diaries like oil bubbling up through the ground.

How Childhood Writing Revealed Hidden Truths

At the age of 51, I finally learned about the troubled history I carry. And it's about my toddlerhood.
Due to the sensitive nature of this book, names and certain details have been altered in order to protect identities and I am writing under a pseudonym.

Link to other books by Madeleine Watson
Read how I uncovered the truth about my toddlerhood.

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Intro

Welcome — I’m Madeleine Watson, a memoirist, artist and diarist. For more than forty years I’ve lived a lie. I have documented my journey to the dark truth about my toddlerhood through writing, artwork and research. This blog brings together everything I've discovered at the age of 51 — a discovery that reshaped everything I believed about myself.

My work spans childhood trauma, identity, memory, twinhood and the ways early experiences echo through adult life. Here you’ll find memoirs, diary excerpts, artwork, family‑history, research and reflections drawn from decades of personal documentation.

If you’re new, the best place to begin is the Start Here page, which introduces the prologue and the 10‑part series that leads to the moment I learned the truth about my past. You can also visit About Me to learn more about my background and the purpose behind this project.

Thank you for reading.

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