Girlie

"Against the backdrop of the Second World War coming to an end, and a time of change into the early 1950s, teenager and young woman, Eileen Bonney, wrestles with webs of love, deceit and secrets as she tries to define herself amid the expectations, demands, friendships and lies of others.

Leaving school at age 13 to care for a distraught and ill mother and five siblings, abandoned but overseen by a philandering father, pursued by a deceitful older lover, fighting a battle with tuberculosis, Eileen survives as best she can in the hope that, one day, her world will be better.

But life isn’t about becoming - it’s about being."

​Girlie is a semi-biographical story of the life of my mother from age 13 to 22 spanning the years 1944-1953. I'm forever grateful to my mother for allowing me to interview her and for sharing the multitude of photographs she took with her box Brownie, and her brothers and sisters for sharing their tales, because it allowed me to recreate the tapestry of my mother's formative years. The work also entailed significant research for historical details and events surrounding my mother's family and rapidly became a classic 'labour of love.' The book's blurb sums up the result.