Not My Father's Son - Alan Cumming

It is not your average Hollywood memoir this one.  Alan Cumming instead mainly focuses on his rather grim upbringing in rural Scotland with his mother, brother and  domineering and demanding father. A childhood spent walking on eggshells in order to avoid his fathers verbal and physical abuse, Alan is forced to look into his family history while filming an episode of Who Do You Think You Are?  The programme assists Alan into looking up what happened to his Grandfather, who died in Malaya in the 1950s in unknown circumstances.

After moving on and not having contact with his father for fifteen years, there are a couple of phone calls and one final meeting after the father questions their relationship.  You have to admire Alan for confronting his demons and meeting with his dad. His father still bitter and angry about what he perceived as an indiscretion by his wife forty plus years ago, and who failed to see what he had done wrong in the marriage to to his sons.

I did enjoy the book, but somehow came away feeling like I had been wounded and touched  by his horrible childhood.  4/5