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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'There are secrets in this family. Before Biff and her younger brother, Mark, there was baby Alison, who drowned in her bath because, it was said, her mother was distracted. Biff too, lives in fear of her mother's irrational behaviour and paranoia, and she is always on guard and fears for the safety of her brother. As Biff grows into teenage hood, there develops a conspiratorial relationship between her and her father, who is a famous and gregarious man, trying to keep his wife's problems a family secret. This was a time when the insane were committed and locked up in Dickensian institutions; whatever his problems her father was desperate to save his wife from that fate. But also to protect his children from the effects of living with a tragically disturbed mother.
'In My Mother's Hands is a beautifully written and emotionally perplexing coming-of-age true story about growing up in an unusual family.' (Publication summary)
Notes
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Dedication: For my Father Russel Ward, 1914-1995
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Epigraph: Eventually we escape the ghosts that haunt us and we become their familiars, at which they lose their terrors for us and are soon our playthings. –Alex Miller, Landscape of Farewell
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
-
Acts of Affirmation : An Interview with Biff Ward
Nigel Featherstone
(interviewer),
2015
single work
interview
— Appears in: Verity La , October 2015; -
Canberran among 12 on Stella Long List
2015
single work
column
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 13 February 2015; (p. 3) -
Woman in Gloves
2014
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , August no. 363 2014; (p. 19)
— Review of In My Mother's Hands 2014 single work autobiography -
Making Peace with Horrors of Childhood
2014
single work
review
— Appears in: The West Australian , 22 July 2014; (p. 7)
— Review of In My Mother's Hands 2014 single work autobiography -
Biff Ward : In My Mother's Hands
2014
single work
review
— Appears in: The Newtown Review of Books , June 2014;
— Review of In My Mother's Hands 2014 single work autobiography
-
Making Peace with Horrors of Childhood
2014
single work
review
— Appears in: The West Australian , 22 July 2014; (p. 7)
— Review of In My Mother's Hands 2014 single work autobiography -
Woman in Gloves
2014
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , August no. 363 2014; (p. 19)
— Review of In My Mother's Hands 2014 single work autobiography -
Biff Ward : In My Mother's Hands
2014
single work
review
— Appears in: The Newtown Review of Books , June 2014;
— Review of In My Mother's Hands 2014 single work autobiography -
Canberran among 12 on Stella Long List
2015
single work
column
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 13 February 2015; (p. 3) -
Acts of Affirmation : An Interview with Biff Ward
Nigel Featherstone
(interviewer),
2015
single work
interview
— Appears in: Verity La , October 2015;
Awards
- 2016 shortlisted Western Australian Premier's Book Awards — Non-Fiction
- 2015 shortlisted New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards — Douglas Stewart Prize for Non-Fiction
- 2015 longlisted The Stella Prize
- 2014 winner Canberra Critics Circle Awards — Non-fiction