Empty Cradles

This Is a really heart-rending book dealing with the UK's child migrant schemes that oversaw the deportation of thousands of children to Australia, Canada, and Africa. Humphrey's details her almost single-handed investigation, driven to reunite children with parents who they'd been told were dead or had abandoned them. On the other side, the parents were told similar lies. While the investigative narrative is compelling, and the abuses of government, charity, and religious organizations is disturbing, the issues of identity are what really stand out in the book - what makes you who you are?

This book was originally released under the title Empty Cradles but has been re-released as Oranges and Sunshine to coincide with the release of the film, starring Emily Watson.

This book had me from the get-go. I absolutely devoured it and polished it off in 24 hours flat.

My secret vice is family history. I love digging through archives, electoral rolls, reading wills and ordering certificates, all the while imagining what ancestors' lives would have been like and putting their lives in the context of the history of the day. There has been hardship of course and children on both sides of the family ended up in orphanages. This was largely due to their mothers' deaths and their fathers being unable to work and care for their children show more at the same time. It was usually during a depression of some sort when other family members could not afford to feed extra mouths. On my mother's side, my grandmother and her twin sister were admitted at the age of 3 together with their older sister aged 4 and their older brother aged 6. Their father re-married and his second wife insisted he fetch the children and bring them home - seven years later. They were the lucky ones.

This book tells the tale of others not so lucky. Of children who were placed into the care of the state by their parents, often as a stop gap measure until they could afford to bring them home. Or put up for adoption by their parents who never imagined they would be shipped 12,000 miles away. Let alone to other orphanages and for many, to suffer the most shameful, cowardly and despicable abuse.

The author, Margaret Humphreys, has been awarded the Order of Australia medal for her work in helping reunite long lost family members. Margaret, a social worker from Nottingham, is a woman who left no stone unturned in her efforts to discover family for these children, now adults. Ultimately this book is the story of one woman's amazing perseverance in the face of, not one, but many heartless bureaucracies. She is an inspiration to us all. show less

I first read this book in 1994. I picked it up in New Edition bookshop and had to buy it as I couldn't stop reading. A horrifying, tragic, gripping story of the foundation of the Child Migrants Trust by Nottingham social worker Margaret Humphries. We follow her journey from disbelief at the story of one woman, to her becoming a passionate advocate for the forgotten and often abused, now grown, child migrants. All the more engrossing because a lot of it is set here in Western Australia. Re-read it after seeing the recent film dramatisation "Oranges and Sunshine". Ironically the cinema (The Windsor) where I saw the film is on the corner of the street where the CMT had it's first office in Perth and where Margaret's life was show more threatened...
Re read it again this week (May 2014) when the Royal Commission into Child Sex Abuse is sitting in Perth - The work of Margaret Humphreys and the CMT helped expose this abuse and again, I recommend this book, and the film, to everyone. show less

This is a piece of social history which , along with the recording of the experiences of the Aboriginal stolen generation, should be read widely. It is a part of the history of two countries that needs to have the torch shone on it. Margaret Humphreys manages to convey the story with poignance and dignity. That officials REFUSED to acknowledge for so long (and during Humphrey's quest) that any such thing as the forcible 'transportation' of children from the UK to Australia up to the second half of the 20th century, is damning.
Should be on history curricula in both countries. politicians should be required to read it before they can represent their constituents. It should be read alongside 'Bringing Them Home' about the Aboriginal show more stolen children, forecably removed from their families also well in to the 20th century. As a nation we will reach genuine maturity when we acknowledge and take on board some of the more unpleasant aspects of our shared history. show less

Subject of the film, Oranges and Sunshine, starring Emily Watson, this is the book that exposed the heartbreaking scandal of Britain's forgotten and abused child migrants, which has now been the focus of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse.

Not all heroes wear capes. Margaret Humphreys is one of these heroes. Humphreys astonishing dedication, compassion and stubborn courage is nothing short of incredible. It’s estimated that up to 150,000 children are believed to have been resettled under the scheme, some as young as three, about 7,000 of them sent to Australia.

Your heart will break as you read this true-story. If you’ve seen the movie, read the book. It delves into the individual stories.

Absolutely loved this book! It makes you think about how such things could go on unchallenged up until the 20th century! if you only read one book this year it should be this one!

Truth is stranger than fiction. Can't remember much about style etc, this is all about the true story. Worth a read.