Today it's a pleasure to take part in the BlogTour The Forgotten Children by Isabella Muir. It's an emotional fictional story that draws from tragic true events.
Enter the Giveaway below to win a signed copy of The Forgotten Children (UK Only).
About the Author
Isabella Muir has been surrounded by books her whole life and – after working for twenty years as a technical editor and having successfully completed her MA in Professional Writing - she was inspired to focus on fiction writing.
As well as her newest title, The Forgotten Children, Isabella is the author of the Sussex Crime Mystery series. These Agatha Christie style stories are set in the sixties and seventies and feature a young librarian and amateur sleuth, Janie Juke, who has a passion for Agatha Christie. All that Janie has learned from her hero, Hercule Poirot, she is able to put into action as she sets off to solve a series of crimes and mysteries.
Aside from books, Isabella has a love of all things caravan-like. She has spent many winters caravanning in Europe and now, together with her husband, she runs a small caravan site in Sussex. They are ably assisted by their much-loved Scottie, Hamish.
Follow @SussexMysteries on Twitter, on Facebook,
Visit isabellamuir.com
Buy The Forgotten Children
About the book
A woman’s search to find her son uncovers the shocking truth about one of Britain’s darkest periods
Struggling with the demons of her past, Emily is a children’s author with a dark secret, and a guilt that threatens to consume her. For twenty years she has lived in Brighton, England, trying to forget the day they took her baby from her, just hours after he was born. But now, in the summer of 1987, she decides to begin the search for her son.
Emily takes refuge in a small town on the Isle of Anglesey to plan the search, where she meets Walter, a gentle stranger, who helps her with his words of wisdom and kindness. But it is when she decides to return home to Hastings, that she really has to face her demons.
Estranged from her parents when she was just sixteen, Emily is shocked by what her mother has to tell her about events that occurred before Emily was even born. Beside her, throughout her search, is Emily’s beautiful Irish friend, Geraldine, recovering from her own sad experiences. Together they uncover a truth that shocks them all.
The Forgotten Children draws the reader into lives affected by narrow-minded beliefs and blinkered thinking at the highest level. Children who weren’t allowed to be born, children who were abandoned, and children who were taken, forced to lead a life thousands of miles away from everyone and everything they knew – leaving scars that may never heal.
At its heart, The Forgotten Children is a story of survival, but the journey that Emily has to take is painful. Even more so because she knows it was allowed to happen by individuals, religions and governments, who should have known better.
Review
Emily doesn't think about her past a lot, in fact she has successfully driven it from her daily thoughts, until the trauma of an unexpected pregnancy and a miscarriage drags up unpleasant memories. She is so overwhelmed by her repressed emotions that she cuts ties with some of the aspects in her life and seeks a time of solitude to reflect.
Whilst searching for the baby her parents made her give up for adoption, she more or less stumbles upon a terrible secret. Based upon true events the author delves into the atrocity of the fate of abandoned children and orphans sent from the UK to British colonies, without permission in the majority of cases I might add. Children from destitute households often ended up being taken into care under the guise of providing a better life for them, and they were subsequently shipped off too.
Names of children and their dates of birth were changed in an attempt to disguise the fraudulent actions, and the institutes on the UK end, including the Anglican and Catholic church, would 'lose' the documents. Thereby making it almost impossible to trace the children if anyone came looking for them. They were sent in an attempt populate the colonies with more white people, and used in the most cases as labourers and slaves.
Over 130000 children from the ages of three to fourteen, although I am sure there were plenty who fell outside of this age range, were sent between the 1920s and the 1970s to Australia, Canada and other colonies for instance. Only a small amount of these children were adopted and found love and safety with a new family. The majority of them were subjected to physical, psychological and sexual abuse in so-called 'homes' and orphanages.
The story of Emily and her search causes a ripple which reveals other hidden secrets, but in a way they help her to understand the decisions of those people who shaped her own life. Perspective is an interesting thing and it certainly helps the main character to come to terms with her choices.
The author is certainly right when it comes to shedding a light on injustices like this. In fact take a big huge spotlight and the brighter the better. Oh, and what a surprise the catholic church is involved in yet another scandal involving innocent children and their desperate families.
Although the topics are quite traumatic and emotional, the author gives the story an air of calmness in times of turmoil. She invokes a sense of peace and serenity, which in contrast to the more emotional scenes is quite a contradiction, but I think that is Muir putting her mark on it. It's a story of reflection, redemption and ultimately one of love.
Buy The Forgotten Children at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer.
Buy at Amazon com
Publisher: Outset Publishing Ltd
Don't forget to enter the Giveaway below to win a signed copy of The Forgotten Children (UK Only).
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*Terms and Conditions –UK entries welcome. Please enter using the Rafflecopter box above. The winner will be selected at random via Rafflecopter from all valid entries and will be notified by Twitter and/or email. If no response is received within 7 days then Rachel’s Random Resources reserves the right to select an alternative winner. Open to all entrants aged 18 or over. Any personal data given as part of the competition entry is used for this purpose only and will not be shared with third parties, with the exception of the winners’ information. This will passed to the giveaway organiser and used only for fulfilment of the prize, after which time Rachel’s Random Resources will delete the data. I am not responsible for despatch or delivery of the prize.*
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