by Dr Anne Else, MNZM

Thousands of New Zealanders have had their lives profoundly affected by adoption. I am one of them: I was adopted at birth in 1945.

The book I needed to read about adoption did not exist. So, in 1991 I published A Question of Adoption: Closed Stranger Adoption in New Zealand 1944–1974. This has now been completely updated, expanded, and republished online as a new e-book by Bridget Williams Books.

Notes from Inside: A courageous woman’s experiences of domestic violence and mental illness
A Book Review by Hilary Lapsley

Anne Thurston has given us the gift of survivor experience in her memoir of domestic violence, mental illness and recovery. Her story covers many decades. The formative events and impressions of childhood. Marriage, children and life on the family farm as it pitches down from idyll to jeopardy. And then through her process of recovery, activated by courage, curiosity, self-analysis and psychotherapy. Thurston has a great gift for description, honed by the memoir writing course she attended. Her warm depictions of childhood and the farming life are particularly vivid and sensuous.