Trio - Cath Staincliffe

Now I was recommended Cath Staincliffe as a crime writer worthy of attention. I, however, didn't read the blurb on the cover of this book - this isn't one of Ms Staincliffe's crime novels. I was pleasantly surprised and would heartily recommend this thought-provoking story of three women and their three baby girls put up for adoption. The mother's are very different, and their tales vary considerably, but they are all extremely moving and without being over sentimental examine in depth why someone might feel compellecd to give away their child, and how that child reacts once they find out that they are adopted, and whether they wish to find out the truth of their origins. Of course the babies are born in the early 1960s when alternative choices were lacking, contraception was fairly non-existant and attitudes far less liberal than today. All three mothers are from Catholic families - and this affects the decisions that are taken by the women - and their families. What is interesting is the thought processes of both the mother's families, and the families into which the babies are adopted. The moment of conception has a permanent effect on the lives of so many people.
I was especially interested because I was a Registrar for nearly 30 years and regularly found I had to tell people that they had been adopted - when they applied for a birth certificate. Many parents who adopted would not tell their adopted children that they were not blood relatives. Sometimes I would be faced with the situation of adopted adults searching for their natural parents - and sometimes there was great joy, but sometime terrible sadness when the natural parent did not want to know - their lives had moved on. Recently I got a phone call from a woman who had been told that she had had a sister who had died at a very young age, and wanted to find the cause of her death. In fact the sister had been adopted out of her family. The woman started on a search, and found her sister was living in Canada. They have now met - after more than half a century. Remarkable.
This book is worth reading - very well written, without toppling into mawkishness. Rating 8/10