The Broken Tree

The Broken Tree is a Personal Memoir of a Search for a Family.

In this remarkable book Anita Venes reveals a very painful story. It is of her search for her family.

During her childhood her memories of who she was slowly slipped away. She was a child who had been abandoned the the care system, such as it was, in the 1940s.

Unfortunately for Anita her experiences of being a fostered child were not happy ones and, like many of her peers in the childcare system of that era she tried to focus on the future rather than the unappealing past.

However, she was able to make something of her life and her own experiences helped ot shape the kind of person she became. She chose to work with children who were profoundly disabled. She was dedicated to her career for four decades. Her career culminated in her being chosen as the headteacher of a new school.

But Anita still though of her own birth family and she dedicated her life to learning about them and finding them.

She was able to learn the truth that her mother had desperately wanted to keep in touch with her and her siblings but that circumstances had thwarted her.

However, she and her sister were able to reestablish communications with their mother when Anita was 25, having not seen her since she was three years old.

However, the new relationship with her mother wasn't quite what she had hoped for. However several points that had caused her concern were answered when she discovered that severe mental health problems had meant that her mother had been incapable of looking after her children which is why they had to be taken into care.

It's a moving account and at times a troubling one, but it is also a spirited and inspirational account that will help others who are going through similar troubled times.

It is also illustrated with a number of photographs.

Incidentally she discovered that her brother is an internationally acclaimed entertainer.

The book is published by Matador at £12.99.