Empty Cradles (Oranges and Sunshine)

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uk I always steer clear of self-help books which offer quick-fix motivation, get rich schemes and strategies which offer unrealistic outcomes. This book was an amazing insight into a long and ill conceived period of social engineering presided over by several governments and many powerful institutions and probably the most absorbing and informative books I have read in a long time. Ultimately she becomes centre-stage and she seems to not see the irony of leaving her own young children and husband in England for many months at a time, several times a year to pursue her mission in the Southern hemisphere.

So suddenly Margaret Humphreys had become the champion of all these now middle-aged and elderly child migrants. At a time when empty cradles were contributing woefully to empty spaces, it was necessary to look for external sources of supply. The justification was to ‘populate or perish’ and ensure British colonies retained a population of ‘desirables’, fair-skinned Europeans. She also discovered that many of these children were sent to remote farms run by religious organizations, and that this “new life” was, sadly and shockingly, filled with neglect and abuse, the children often working as slaves. Of course, it did take me a bit longer than normal to get through it because there were quite a few times that I had to walk away from it and get a breather.

If there is anything to be learnt it is that orphanages have to be very carefully monitored and a child under 10 years of age should never be allowed to be alone with either a Nun or a Priest of the Catholic faith. The way she followed her instincts to help people, do good and bring the hidden secret of child migration to the forefront of a nation's conscience. Some of the details in these stories were so much the same as those I heard in prisons or mental services, that I began to wonder how many child migrants I had come across without knowing.

THE BOOK THAT EXPOSED THE HEARTBREAKING SCANDAL OF BRITAIN'S FORGOTTEN AND ABUSED CHILD MIGRANTS - now a film, Oranges and Sunshine, starring Emily Watson. One friend of mine who had been adopted got Margaret Humphries to trace her parents - that's a whole other story, but it did have a quasi-happy ending.

Many were told that their parents were dead, and parents often believed that their children had been adopted in Britain.