Kate Adie

I had been waiting for months for the price on the Kindle version of this book to drop, and then a friend loaned me a copy found in a charity shop! So finally, ages after watching the documentary which made me want to read more about foundlings, I found Kate Adie's living history of abandoned children to be both informative and emotional.

Opening with an introduction about the author's own uncertain origins - 'My passport contains a lie' - Nobody's Child is broken down into chapters titled show more with various official questions which adopted children and foundlings find hard or impossible to answer, from 'What is your name?', and the important but little known legal fact that 'if you don't like your name you can change it', to 'What is your mother's name?' and 'Where were you born?'

I initially thought that Adie's book would be a series of personal accounts from foundlings, like the documentary, and although there are individual narratives - from ordinary people found as babies in strange places like railway stations and telephone boxes to more famous names including Andy McNab and Fatima Whitbread - there is also so much more. Adie describes the history of foundling hospitals, from the Innocenti in Florence, a fifteenth century orphanage, to Thomas Coram's eighteenth century charity in London, as well as modern day examples in Russia and China. Some of the facts are shocking, and not all are related to times past - mothers leaving babies at Coram's hospital might have needed certificates to prove they hadn't killed their babies, but women in the UK can still be prosecuted for abandoning their babies. The real life stories are also heartwarming, though, like the four sisters tracing their adopted brother and the 'Safe Havens' for mothers who are too scared to keep their babies in New York and Boston.

Adie also adds a personal touch, talking about her own adoption and childhood, plus her career with the BBC and the stories she has collected from people in countries all over the world. She has a witty and friendly yet professional approach to the subject that stays with you long after finishing the book.

'For we all need roots, and we are all somebody's child.' show less

Kate Adie brings an interesting personal touch to the forgotten stories of women who struggled against a patriarchal society for the right to be taken seriously. Adie marries the story of the fight for electoral representation with that of the women who took men's places in the workplace during the war firmly on men's terms. This isn't a story often told in the more typically eulogising accounts of plucky little women filling the gap left by men who were fighting on the front. This is a show more story of women used cheaply as a stop gap and not recognised for the effort and the sacrifice they made to support the armed forces and the nation. There are some remarkable stories of bravery and bloody mindedness in the face of patronising male dismissal of women's abilities. There are also parallels drawn by Adie between the chauvinism of Edwardian Britain in a theatre of war and the chauvinism shown to her 80 years later as a war correspondent. There is some repetition of themes across the piece, and not everything in the book is entirely engaging, but on the whole this is a good popular history of a little-celebrated aspect of World War One. show less

Kate Adie’s detailed examination of the myriad ways in which the lives of women changed during the First World War offers a fascinating glimpse into the social and political upheaval of the period. It wasn’t that women hadn’t been pushing for change in the old order: the suffrage movement was gaining momentum and industrialisation was opening up new opportunities. However, the advent of war and its voracious need for men to fight on the Front, meant that women from all walks of life show more stepped up to do a wide range of jobs which had traditionally be done by men. They were also used, in a cynical way some could argue, via a poster campaign which encouraged men to fight for their country – suddenly the power of the female voice was being recognised! Many women were keen to use these new opportunities to break free from the shackles of a paternalistic, chauvinistic and stifling society and to play their part in fighting the enemy. However, they also had to fight against dismissive attitudes on the home front, from politicians and from the employers and the unions. Not only was there the issue of what they should be paid (certainly not as much as men were paid!) but they were constantly reminded that these jobs were only “for the duration” and that, once the war was over, the men would replace them. There were also some lines which couldn’t be crossed – for instance, the women were allowed to clean the trains but not to drive them ….. chauvinism and prejudice were still alive and kicking! Nevertheless, the fact was that, in so many ways, the genie was out of the bottle and life would never be the same again, for either men or women.
Kate Adie’s exploration of the complexities of these changes was impressive, highlighting some things which I hadn’t previously given thought to. One example being that a successful and popular campaign for volunteer knitters to provide items such as socks, gloves, scarves etc. for the troops was regarded as a major threat to the jobs of textile workers. She also highlighted, through well-researched examples, many instances of incredible bravery, of women risking their own lives and yet their exploits were seen as “plucky” and “splendid” rather than “brave” – another reflection of the paternalistic attitudes of the time! She told the story of Flora Sandes (probably my favourite character in the book), an ambulance volunteer who eventually fought with the Serbian army, thus becoming the only woman to officially fight in the war. I had never heard of her and yet she is still regarded by Serbs as a national hero!
This book is full of wonderful examples of the roles women adopted during this period, of neglected heroes and of the ways in which the lives of people on the home front were frequently in danger, either through the work they did or as a result of Zeppelin raids which brought death and destruction. There were times when, partly as a result of the chapter- construction of the story, I found some of the themes and observations repetitious, but overall this is a very well-written account of a fascinating period. show less

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This is a gratifyingly entertaining book, starting with a chapter on student visits to Germany and Sweden in the late 1960s, and then going through Adie's career as a BBC journalist who ended up specialising in conflict zones. The chapters on 1970s Northern Ireland and wartime Bosnia rang very true to me; the chapter on Libya was horrifying, especially given what has happened since; the chapter on Tian-an-Men Square moved me to tears. Adie has an eye show more for the telling detail in he writing as well as in her broadcast reportage.

I did wonder a bit about the ideology of reporting. Adie claims firmly to aspire to be partly a conduit conveying what is happening on the ground to the viewer, and also a first emotional responder as it were, giving the viewers her own reaction. Yet that's a little to modest; her emotional response inevitably shapes the viewer's response, it's not that they have a range of different options to choose from; and the stories that she finds, or is allowed to find, shape the popular narrative for the events that she is describing. I would have liked a little reflection on the role of the journalist as creator rather than mere reporter.

But basically the sheer thrill and horror of experiencing these events, be it desperate attempts to find anything reportable in the Durham countryside or flight through the back streets of Beijing under live fire, makes for a very readable book. show less