In my mother's hands : a disturbing memoir of family life / Biff Ward.
Publisher: Crows Nest, NSW : Allen & Unwin, 2014Description: xii, 268 pages : illustrations, portraits ; 24 cmContent type:- still image
- text
- unmediated
- volume
- 9781743319116 (pbk) :
- Ward, Elizabeth, 1942- -- Family
- Ward, Elizabeth, 1942- -- Childhood and youth
- Ward, Elizabeth, 1942-
- Ward, Elizabeth, 1942-
- Mentally ill mothers -- Family relationships -- Australia -- New South Wales -- Biography
- Mentally ill mothers -- Australia -- New South Wales -- Biography
- Families -- Australia -- New South Wales -- Biography
- Dysfunctional families -- Australia -- New South Wales -- Biography
- Dysfunctional families
- Families
- Mentally ill mothers
- Mental illness
- Mental illness
- Families -- Australia -- Biography
- Australia -- Biography
- Australia
- New South Wales
- 616.89 23
Item type | Current library | Call number | Status | Date due | Barcode | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Book | Jessie Street National Women's Library General Stacks | 616.89 WAR (Browse shelf(Opens below)) | Available for reference in the library and ILL | 68266 |
Mental wellbeing.
There are secrets in this family. Before Biff and her younger brother, Mark, there was baby Alison, who drowned in her bath because, it was said, her mother was distracted. Biff too, lives in fear of her mother's irrational behaviour and paranoia, and she is always on guard and fears for the safety of her brother. As Biff grows into teenagehood, there develops a conspiratorial relationship between her and her father, who is a famous and gregarious man, trying to keep his wife's problems a family secret. This was a time when the insane were committed and locked up in Dickensian institutions; whatever his problems her father was desperate to save his wife from that fate. But also to protect his children from the effects of living with a tragically disturbed mother. In My Mother's Hands is a beautifully written and emotionally perplexing coming-of-age true story about growing up in an unusual family.
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