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About the Author:
Neil Hawke
On leaving Grammar School Margaret Morris trained in general nursing at Preston Royal Infirmary between the years 1948-51, and it is these years that she remembers within this book. She went on to qualify as a midwife, then became a health visitor. She had a career break whilst she raised three children and then returned to work health visiting in a multi-cultural and highly disadvantaged inner city practice where she was eventually promoted into management.
During her working life Margaret started writing in connection with her profession and had a number of articles published in magazines such as Nursing Mirror and Nursing Times. Since retirement she has been involved in setting up and chairing a committee to found a hostel for young homeless adults which is still functioning. She was also invited onto the board of ‘Places for People’, becoming the chair of the North West Area Committee and later Vice Chairman of the parent board, only retiring due to their age rule.
Finding she enjoyed the many public speaking engagements within her work, she took up after-dinner speaking using interesting and humorous anecdotes from her career. She has written Crying in the Linen Cupboard to show that ‘the oft divided, maligned, taken-for-granted NHS has come a long, long way in a short, short time. For which we should be truly grateful.’
The late 1950s and early 60s is not a good time for unmarried teenage mothers; so when Laura Clark finds herself in just this situation, it is her own feisty naivety that propels her to keep her baby son Matthew.
Pregnant at 17 and exiled to her Aunt Agnes, Laura has no idea why her first love Simon, father of her baby, has disappeared out of her life, and is fortunate that her determination against adoption is helped when her aunt becomes an unexpected ally.
From the earliest days with baby Matthew, Laura can see in him features of Simon, the man she still longs for; but her lovely son also shows other characteristics which, she learns, are a form of autism. Realising the new difficulties she must face as a single mother, Laura determines to do all she can to help Matthew deal with his social skills and behavioural problems.
When Laura finally tracks down Simon, she has no idea whether he will cope with the knowledge that not only is he a father, but also his son is autistic. While circumstances prevail against the couple reuniting, a sinister act on a traumatised Matthew becomes the catalyst to prove just how strong the power of love really is.
ISBN: 9781852001810
Size: 217x140mm
Binding: Hardback
Length: 215pp