Mothers Who Leave: Behind the Myth of Women Without Their Children
Harper Collins, 1994
This is a moving account of the pressures that sometimes force women to live apart from their children, and a study of how mothers who leave are seen, in real life and in fiction and popular culture. Includes examples such as Ingrid Bergman, Doris Lessing, Yoko Ono, Frieda Lawrence, many less well-known women, and analyses of films like Kramer versus Kramer. Rosie draws on her own experience - now told at more length in her memoir The Glass Mother - to give a compassionate, in-depth discussion which reduces stigma and sensationalism around a sensitive subject.
‘interesting and original.' Fay Weldon
'superb... understanding the punitive stereotypes and emotional reality for women as mothers today.' Professor Griselda Pollock
'a much-needed book.. showing extraordinary tact and understanding.' Professor Ann Kaplan
Translated into German, 1995