Hearing Eye

Two children’s tales, ‘The Gingerbread Boy’ and ‘Hansel and Gretel’, combine to create the central metaphor of the narrative poem, which follows the life of a runaway girl, from naivety through maturity and beyond.

From Cookie to Witch is an Old Story was written at a time in the author's life when her adolescent daughters were more and more away from home, travelling and/or at university. In psycho-babble, this is called ‘the empty nest syndrome’. It is, in any case, a time of transformation, the dying embers of useful parenthood from which a renewed sense of human purpose may, phoenix-like, arise.

“Frankly, you shouldn’t even try to resist this book...”

“Frankly, you shouldn’t even try to resist this book...”

“… It’s beautifully economical for the momentous theme of motherhood and is told humorously, concretely, sophisticatedly and tellingly.”