The Wild Track: adopting, mothering, belonging

(Paperback)

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Extremely moving...an unusually thoughtful take on becoming a mother, enabled by removing babyhood and biology. A testament to the joy of finding home and belonging...the precariousness of the care system is painfully felt and it's this that makes Reynolds's book such a necessary contribution to the literature on motherhood.' - Guardian 'A remarkable book...wise and arresting' Sarah Winman 'Exquisite... a deeply insightful memoir which charts our fundamental longings for place and identity, and ultimately our yearnings for love.' Helena Kennedy Single, in her mid-forties and having experienced a sudden early menopause, a realisation comes to Peggy quietly, and clearly- she decides to adopt a child. But the preparation is arduous and the scrutiny intense. There are questions about past lives, about capability and expectations. Asking big questions about identity and belonging, as well as about what makes a mother - and a home - this is a beautiful meditation on how the legacies of childhood might be overcome by a mother's determination to love. 'Extremely moving...an unusually thoughtful take on becoming a mother, enabled by removing babyhood and biology.' Guardian

Reviews

Exquisite. Beautifully written, The Wild Track is a deeply insightful memoir which charts displacement and our fundamental longings for place and identity and ultimately our yearnings for love. -- Helena Kennedy
This memoir is a triumph; an extraordinarily wise and rich analysis of what it means to belong, to a place and to beloved others. Deeply moving, richly allusive, surprising and thought-provoking, The Wild Track deserves to be one of the great successes of 2021. -- Bel Mooney
A remarkable book. Wise and arresting in its candour. -- Sarah Winman
Enlightening...The Wild Track is a passionate, heartfelt exploration of a woman who wants to be a mother. I found it utterly compelling. -- Alex Wheatle
Extremely moving...an unusually thoughtful take on becoming a mother, enabled by removing babyhood and biology. A testament to the joy of finding home and belonging...the precariousness of the care system is painfully felt and it's this that makes Reynolds's book such a necessary contribution to the literature on motherhood. * Guardian *

Author Bio

Margaret Reynolds is a writer, academic, critic and broadcaster. Her critical edition of Elizabeth Barrett Browning's Aurora Leigh won the British Academy's Rose Mary Crawshay prize. Other books include The Penguin Book of Lesbian Short Stories, The Sappho Companion, Victorian Women Poets: An Anthology (with Angela Leighton) and a series of study guides on contemporary writers, Vintage Living Texts. She is Professor of English at Queen Mary, University of London and a Life Member of Clare Hall, Cambridge. She is the presenter of BBC Radio 4's long running 'Adventures in Poetry'.