{"title":"Books by Paul Cullen","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"9781399755863","title":"Outsider","description":"\u003cb\u003e'A remarkable story, a real page-turner' JOE DUFFY\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Powerfully written ... a gripping narrative' FINTAN O'TOOLE\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe remarkable story of one man's journey from the edge of death to the heart of a hidden past.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Adopted at age three, Paul Cullen always felt like an outsider. After a near-fatal fall from Germany's highest peak in 2017 left him broken - physically and emotionally - he faced a personal reckoning. As he lay injured on the mountain, he knew that if he survived, he could no longer avoid the questions that had haunted him since childhood.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e What happened in those missing early years? Who cared for him before his adoption? And why was it so hard to find the truth?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eOutsider\u003c\/i\u003e follows Paul's search for answers, from a mother and baby home in 1960s London to a suburban estate in 1970s Dublin, in a house lit with love but shadowed by a darker truth. As his body heals, he pieces together the fragments of his identity, confronting the silence of a closed adoption system and the emotional legacy of a hidden past.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Courageous and deeply personal, \u003ci\u003eOutsider\u003c\/i\u003e is a powerful story of survival, belonging and the enduring human need to know where we come from.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56368810000757,"sku":"9781399755863","price":16.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781399755863_3a99fc81-9f6d-49a3-848a-3d09cd37a6ab.jpg?v=1786019168"},{"product_id":"outsider","title":"Outsider","description":"'A remarkable story, a real page-turner' JOE DUFFY'Powerfully written ... a gripping narrative' FINTAN O'TOOLEThe remarkable story of one man's journey from the edge of death to the heart of a hidden past.   Adopted at age three, Paul Cullen always felt like an outsider. After a near-fatal fall from Germany's highest peak in 2017 left him broken - physically and emotionally - he faced a personal reckoning. As he lay injured on the mountain, he knew that if he survived, he could no longer avoid the questions that had haunted him since childhood.   What happened in those missing early years? Who cared for him before his adoption? And why was it so hard to find the truth?Outsider follows Paul's search for answers, from a mother and baby home in 1960s London to a suburban estate in 1970s Dublin, in a house lit with love but shadowed by a darker truth. As his body heals, he pieces together the fragments of his identity, confronting the silence of a closed adoption system and the emotional legacy of a hidden past.   Courageous and deeply personal, Outsider is a powerful story of survival, belonging and the enduring human need to know where we come from.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57503747080565,"sku":"9781399755887","price":11.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781399755887.jpg?v=1788187019"},{"product_id":"billion-dollar-baby","title":"Billion Dollar Baby","description":"It was meant to be a symbol of how far Ireland had come - a world-class national children's hospital that would finally honour the promise of the nation's founders to cherish all its children equally. Instead, it became a cautionary tale of ambition gone awry.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e In \u003ci\u003eBillion Dollar Baby\u003c\/i\u003e, veteran journalist Paul Cullen delivers the definitive account of Ireland's most expensive and controversial public project. From its conception in the 1990s to its still-delayed opening more than three decades later, Cullen exposes the tangled web of political interference, medical rivalries, flawed planning and spiralling costs that turned a €650 million vision into a €3 billion fiasco.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e With insider access and forensic detail, he explores how vested interests derailed progress, how tendering missteps and design flaws inflated the budget, and how secrecy and inertia kept the project alive long after common sense had fled. Alongside the children's hospital saga, he explores Ireland's wider struggle with mega-projects - from failed IT systems to phantom metros - and asks: what does this say about how we govern, spend, and care?\u003cbr\u003e ​\u003cbr\u003e Gripping, infuriating and essential, \u003ci\u003eBillion Dollar Baby\u003c\/i\u003e is a landmark investigation into the politics of healthcare, the cost of delay, and the price of promises unkept.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57503747965301,"sku":"9781399755894","price":17.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781399755894.jpg?v=1786867458"}],"url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/collections\/author-paul-cullen.oembed","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}