Adoption, The

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Barefoot, I pick my way across the rough floorboards to where a drawer lined with a quilt serves as a crib. Kneeling as if at chapel, I gaze down at my babe in her makeshift manger. I must not touch her. When I look I must not touch. When I touch I must not look. In this way Mam says no bond will form. Having fallen pregnant to a German POW, a young woman gives up her child for adoption. Years later, after a loveless childhood, her daughter will finally discover the secrets of her birth.

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Anne Berry was born in London in 1956, then spent much of her infancy in Aden, before moving on to Hong Kong at the age of six, where she was educated. She worked for a short period as a journalist for the South China Morning Post, before returning to Britain. After completing a three-year acting course, she embarked on a career in theatre, playing everything from pantomime to Shakespeare. She now lives in Surrey with her husband and four children. She is the author of the critically acclaimed, award-winning novels, The Hungry Ghosts and The Water Children.