The Lost Girls of St Ann's by Cath Staincliffe

 

About the book

Manchester, 1960.

When you’re young, unmarried and pregnant, in a shaming society that will never understand, there’s only one place left to go. St Ann’s mother and baby home.

That’s how restless Joan, who dreams of a glamorous new life in the Big Smoke, finds herself shut away with two unlikely new roommates: spirited Megan and timid country-girl Caroline, who fell pregnant on her first time. Abandoned by their families, they have no one to rely on but each other, as they wait out the days before they birth their babies — only to be parted from them forever.

On a sultry May night, before the stroke of midnight, three baby girls are born — and given away to three eagerly waiting families.

But for Joan, Megan and Caroline, birth is just the beginning. Try as they might to move on with life beyond the convent walls, their mistakes have a way of catching up with them.

When the past comes knocking, the three women are forced to confront the choices they made. Will they ever be reunited with their lost daughters?

What I thought

Oh wow, what a wonderful story. And a true reflection of what many young girls went through back in the early 60's and before when to fall pregnant and become an unmarried mother brought shame to the family. They would send their poor daughters packing to the nearest mother and baby home to give birth and have their precious new born babies taken away and put up for adoption.

As the reader, we follow the lives of these three young girls, from their time spent under the care of nuns whilst they see out their pregnancy and give up their babies, right through to adulthood and beyond. I enjoyed the way the plot develops and the way the chapters and different parts of the story are set out. In quite long chapters we follow Joan, Megan and Caroline to see what becomes of them when they leave the baby unit, the adoptive parents of the babies and follow their lives, and also the baby girls as they grow into young adults and where their lives lead them. Your heart goes out to every single character in the book, a very emotive and touching story which had me completely absorbed in their lives.

Parts of the book are set in Manchester, and being a Mancunian and originally living close to the East side of Manchester, I knew all the places mentioned in the book. The three babies were born in 1960, just a year before I was born, so it was quite a nostalgic read too. 

Whilst this is a fictional story, it is reflective of the many women still today who have been through the heart wrenching stories in this book, some who have been reunited as well as those who have never managed to find their lost family. A very insightful book which I enjoyed very much.

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💙 Happy Reading 💙

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The book is available in e-book, paperback and audio from book retailers including Amazon