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Mother of the Child

A Memoir within a Memoir
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“Songful time travelling” awaits in this memoir, a lyrical time warp from last century, floating across then and there to here and now. This collection of moments sifted from a mother’s life is like an old movie, as seen through the child’s eyes, with timeless messages. The author holds up her mother’s mirror on her life, revealing fragments that shine under the spotlight of reminiscence. It’s a snapshot of painted impressions that take us away and make us connect with things that ring true. “To hear the lyricism in life we might listen out for faraway cadences while we hear the realities of a life as lived,” says Jill Forster. “There were plenty of cockatoos screeching in my mother’s life. What she needed was to hear the doves coo. What she did hear every day was a caged canary call.” We hear the poetry in the faint whir of a ceiling fan that oscillates with the sounds of family life and we wait for time to reveal another message, as we stop to listen and get the drift of days now gone.

With a PhD in educational psychology and curriculum, Jill Forster has worked as an independent consultant, university lecturer and secondary school teacher, and has continued to run creative writing workshops and write freelance.

Since completing Mother of the Child, Jill has been collaborating in an art and poetry project, written more than 100 collected poems, and has a set of “short short stories” underway. Her professional articles appear in peer-reviewed journals and research textbooks on the topics of creative thinking and (under) achievement. Her individual poems have been published in collations such as a chapbook (NSW Government Arts Council grant), magazines and online (for the National Library and Royal Botanic Gardens), and her other published writings include the books Think about Creativity, Think about Mentoring, and two poetry books: Lullabies and Honeyed Ramblings.

* Book Launch at Dickerson Gallery (Woollahra)
* Standalone Website
* Faceboook / Instagram Pages
* Flyers
* Review copies sent out and highprofile quotes obtained

"Jill’s book is a wonderful memoir of her mother, and her use of text and poetry brings the personal anecdotes alive. So many of the things she talks about bring my own memories alive. Life was very different in this time, and yet I relished reading her stories. Our lives are ordinary and yet extraordinary. Thank you, Jill.”—Diana Ryall AM, former Managing Director, Apple Australia

"A literary photo album where words replace pictures" - Clare Calvet, ABC Radio Reviewer

“Magically compelling, honest and insightful, Mother of the Child takes the reader through a beautiful and authentic journey of an Australian woman’s life from the mid-20th  century, so real and resonant that the reader can smell the soup on the stove, hear the cockatoos screeching, taste the sea salt on the beach towels and see the bobby pins on the dressing table. It is at the same time a monument to a life that has filled with love of family, the Australian landscape and life itself, with all of its joy and injustices, balanced beautifully but without undue sentimentality, with timeless poetry, remnants of philosophy and enduring gratefulness for a mother’s gift of life and love. Along the way it helps to nurture and heal those who have lost and need to live again.” — Kaaren Koomen AM, Director, Governmental & Regulatory Affairs, IBM Australia & New Zealand.

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